The civil rights movement in South Carolina has an epic and tumultuous history, beginning with the very first statewide meeting of the NAACP in 1939. With stories of sit-ins, movements and the integration of state universities, this is the first comprehensive history of South Carolina's civil rights struggles. And behind every achievement are the major legal rulings that protected them, interspersed with the familiar names of Thurgood Marshall, Matthew Perry, Ernest A. Finney and Judge Waties Waring. Join former South Carolina NAACP president and activist James L. Felder as he recounts the epic struggle African Americans have faced, from fighting for the right to vote to the desegregation of public spaces and all the efforts in between.
The idea to write this book came to me in 1976 while I was attending my first AME General Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I tagged along with Dr. Claude Stevens, a physician, who was chief of staff at Benevolent Society Hospital in Kingstree, SC. His father was an AME pastor in North Carolina. He warned me on what to expect at this conference. First, he said it was a reunion of persons who had not seen each other in four or eight or twelve years. Second, it was a religious convention. Third, it was a political convention. Fourth, some view it as a big circus that continues for two weeks. He was right on all accounts. The Democrat or Republican Party conventions could not hold a candle to this meeting. Having grown up in the AME Church I knew the inner workings of the local church, the District Planning Meeting and the Annual Conference. I have served as Sunday School Superintendent, Boy Scout Master and Steward Pro Tem of Union Station AME Church in Sumter, South Carolina. Those experiences did not prepare me for what I witnessed at the General Conference a body which meets every four years. This visit to my church conference wetted my appetite to learn more about this denomination of which I am a third generation participant. Before people of color could vote and participate in the political process of this country the big deal was getting elected a delegate to the General Conference to cast a vote for the election of bishops in the AME Church. Two of the most powerful positions in this country are an AME Bishop and a Federal Judge. In both cases they are elected for life and wield awesome power. The late Federal Judge Matthew J. Perry once opined that an AME Bishop has more power than a federal judge. Every member of the AME church should attend at least one General Conference. It is estimated that only 5% of AME members attend a conference during their lifetime. Much of the activities that take place at the General Conference are compiled and released in The Book Of Discipline Of The African American Episcopal Church which is the official authority of the church. It is widely distributed but so few members bother to read it. Therefore, I decided to write this book to pull back the curtain on how the General Conference functions and elects bishops for the church. I have attended five General Conferences since that Atlanta conference. I have interviewed 122 laymen, pastors and bishops. I have read and researched every morsel of information I could find on the AME Church. This book is the result of my efforts. I hope it enlightens my fellow AMEs and others who are interested in the saga of the AME Church.
The civil rights movement in South Carolina has an epic and tumultuous history, beginning with the very first statewide meeting of the NAACP in 1939. With stories of sit-ins, movements and the integration of state universities, this is the first comprehensive history of South Carolina's civil rights struggles. And behind every achievement are the major legal rulings that protected them, interspersed with the familiar names of Thurgood Marshall, Matthew Perry, Ernest A. Finney and Judge Waties Waring. Join former South Carolina NAACP president and activist James L. Felder as he recounts the epic struggle African Americans have faced, from fighting for the right to vote to the desegregation of public spaces and all the efforts in between.
In an era during which the United States Supreme Court handed down some of its most important decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Baker v. Carr (1962), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), three senators from South Carolina—Olin Johnston, Strom Thurmond, and Ernest “Fritz” Hollings—waged war on the court’s progressive agenda by targeting the federal judicial nominations process. To Face Down Dixie explores these senators’ role in some of the most contentious confirmation battles in recent history, including those of Thurgood Marshall, Abe Fortas, and Clement Haynsworth. In scrutinizing Supreme Court nominees and attempting to restrict the power of the nine justices of the court, these senators defied not only the leadership of the Democratic Party but also the Senate traditions of hierarchy and seniority. Along with South Carolina’s conservative, segregationist political establishment, which maintained ironclad control over the state’s legislature, Johnston, Thurmond, and Hollings effectively drowned out the many moderate voices in South Carolina that remained critical of their obstructionism, thus advancing their own conservative credentials and boosting their chances of reelection. To Face Down Dixie examines for the first time the central role that South Carolina played in turning Supreme Court nomination hearings into confrontational and political public events. James O. Heath argues that the state’s war on the court concealed its antipathy to civil rights by using the confirmation process to challenge the court’s function as the final arbiter of policy on questions relating to law and order, obscenity, communist subversion, and school prayer. Heath’s study illustrates that while South Carolina’s history of “massive resistance” is less prominent than that of other states, its politicians acted as persistent antagonists in the complex and dramatic debates in the U.S. Senate during the era of civil rights.
Barlett and Steele...are masters at mining obscure documents to see the big picture where most investigators never even knew there was a frame...Year after year, Congress continues to make tax laws more complex and more unfair, then refuses to give the IRS adequate resources to ferret out fraud. If the tax code isn't reformed soon, the authors warn, the consequences might be dire."—Baltimore Sun "A hard-hitting expose of perceived gross inequities in the U.S. tax system."—Publishers Weekly
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