Taw Caw receives grant for Briggs v. Elliot exhibit

Taw Caw Community Outreach Center has received a mini-grant that will support the exhibition of “Courage,” a project that tells the story of the Briggs v. Elliott court case, one of five that led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended nationwide school segregation. The grant will also allow the Taw Caw Community Outreach Center to work with the University of South Carolina Beaufort for a second time to host the latter’s Summer Institute for Teachers in conjunction with their study of “America’s Reconstruction: The Untold Story.” The two organizations collaborated in 2015 and provided a day-long discussion, tour and in-depth exploration of Clarendon County’s Briggs v. Elliott case. “With support from the South Carolina Humanities grant, the exhibition of ‘Courage’ will be obtained from the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will be on display for the community prior to and during the institute visit on July 26,” said Lawrence Hammett in a release. Twenty-five teacher scholars from across the country will be able to hear stories directly from the children of the Briggs v. Elliott plaintiffs. Discussions will be facilitated by Dr. Bernard Powers of the College of Charleston and Dr. Patricia Sullivan of the University of South Carolina. “The goal of the exhibit is to create a visual history that will enhance the oral stories which will be captured during the NEH Institute visit,” Hammett said. “The exhibit will be open and available for the community and the stories collected from the children of the plaintiffs will be placed at the Clarendon County Archives and History for future public use.” Dr. Minuette Floyd of the University of South Carolina will curate a display of photos, letters and family artifacts to complement the exhibit. “Therefore, the Summerton experience will be structured around oral history, investigation of archival and in-print primary sources, the ‘Courage’ exhibit and a scholar-led session,” Hammett said. “Project advisors and staff will be on hand to help with the event, ensuring that content remains in place for the local community to use through its local archives and history agency.” The 2017 Institute will place special emphasis on local oral history and memory as evidenced by having the teachers interact directly with the surviving children of the Briggs v. Elliott plaintiffs. Local educators will have access to lesson plans and visual essays that will grow out of the Summerton event via the NEH Summer Institute website at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. “The visiting teacher scholars will learn more about one of the most neglected and misunderstood periods in our nation’s history, the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction, and how that history began in and was heavily influenced by people and events in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia,” Hammett said. “The institute will also explore some of the most historically important sites beyond Beaufort for understanding the complexity of the era: One such place is Summerton, Swhere the grandchildren of freedmen became plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education nearly a century later. The Summerton field study trip experience will bring the teacher scholars up to the modern civil rights era. “ The exhibit will be free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily from Monday through July 28 at 1126 Granby Lane in Summerton. For more information, call Hammett at (803) 488-8000.