Clarendon County lies in the Santee Cooper region of South Carolina. The county’s economy revolves around timber, agriculture, and the railroad industry. Manning serves as the county seat.
Principally settled by French Huguenots, the county was initially part of the Carolina colony’s Craven County. Clarendon County itself was founded in 1785 and named to honor the Earl of Clarendon, Edward Hyde. Notable events in Clarendon County history include a number of small battles during the Revolutionary War, the burning of a number of buildings in the county by Union general Edward Potter during the Civil War, and the segregation case Briggs v. Elliot.
A Brief History of Manning. Accessed June 02, 2016.
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Levi Pearson, and other parents whose children attended Scotts Branch High School, wanted the county to provide buses for their children. Mr. Pearson was encouraged by Rev. Joseph Armstrong DeLaine...
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The building that housed Summerton High School from circa 1936 to the mid-1960s is located at 12 South Church Street in Summerton. In the middle of the twentieth century, the all-white high school was...
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Santee Cooper Country is made up of the five counties of Berkeley, Calhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg and Sumter. Visit lakes and rivers, museums, parks, flower gardens, plantation homes, nature trails...
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Eliza and Harry Briggs, Sr. are listed as the first petitioners on the lawsuits from the 1940s and 1950s. Harry, a gas station attendant in Summerton, and his wife, Eliza, lost their jobs and were...
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Congressman James E. Clyburn, member of the United States House of Representatives for the 6th District of South Carolina, shares how Rev. J. A. DeLaine had to flee South Carolina. Sadly, Rev. DeLaine...
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The Briggs v. Elliott case began as a simple request to provide bus transportation. In addition to having separate and very inferior facilities, black children had to walk to school, sometimes many...
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Rev. J. A. DeLaine and several others helped build the national case Brown v. Board of Education. DeLaine's family and other Clarendon county residents recall the bravery shown by signers of the...
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Mrs. Modjeska Simkins gives a first-hand account of how the bus lawsuit case began in Clarendon county and her role in the groundbreaking case.
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Minister Harrison Goodwin, a former student at Schofield Middle School, talks about his experience during the civil rights movement.
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Ferdinand Pearson the son of South Carolina civil rights pioneer, Levi Pearson, talks about the court case that his father brought against the Clarendon County School Board. The court case asked for...
