The Rise of White Citizens’ Councils and the Fight to Preserve Segregation in South Carolina
On January 26, 1956, a significant gathering of segregationists convened at the Township Auditorium in Columbia, South Carolina. The event marked the first statewide meeting of the South Carolina Association of Citizens’ Councils, an organization dedicated to preserving racial segregation in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. The meeting, attended by prominent politicians such as U.S. Senators James O. Eastland, J. Strom Thurmond, and Olin D. Johnston, as well as state Rep. Solomon Blatt Sr., underscored the extent to which white political and social leaders were willing to mobilize against desegregation.
During the rally, segregationist rhetoric was on full display. Senator Eastland, a staunch defender of segregation, delivered a speech extolling the supposed benefits of racially segregated schools, claiming it promoted public health, academic standards, and “peaceful race relations.” Applauding from the balcony was Governor James F. Byrnes, who had previously advocated for dismantling South Carolina’s public school system rather than integrating it. Byrnes had played a pivotal role in pushing a constitutional amendment that allowed for such drastic measures.
The White Citizens’ Councils (WCCs) originated in Mississippi in July 1954 as a reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This ruling declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, citing violations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. The WCCs rapidly spread across the South, finding fertile ground in South Carolina due to its direct connection to the Brown case through Briggs v. Elliott, one of the five lawsuits consolidated into Brown.
The WCCs sought to maintain segregation by leveraging economic and social power to punish those who supported desegregation efforts. Members used their control over employment, goods, and services to retaliate against African Americans who advocated for integration. Black employees were fired, businesses were boycotted, loans were called in, and sharecroppers were evicted from their land. These tactics extended beyond individuals to include their families, creating widespread fear and economic hardship within black communities.
In South Carolina, the WCC movement gained significant traction. More than 50,000 white residents joined local chapters within its first year, with Sumter emerging as a central hub for the organization. S. Emory Rogers, a prominent attorney from Summerton who had defended segregation in Briggs v. Elliott, became a leading figure in promoting the WCC’s agenda across the state.
Following the Supreme Court’s 1955 directive in Brown II to desegregate schools with “all deliberate speed,” WCC members intensified their efforts to suppress integration. Black parents who signed petitions advocating for desegregation faced immediate and severe consequences. Local newspapers published their names, leading to job terminations and other forms of economic reprisal. In some cases, petitioners were promised their jobs back if they withdrew their signatures—promises that often went unfulfilled.
The retaliation extended to family members of petitioners as well. Spouses were fired, relatives were evicted from their homes, and rural petitioners were denied access to essential farming supplies and equipment. These punitive measures forced many African American families to leave South Carolina altogether, depriving the state of labor and customers and inadvertently harming white businesses as well.
South Carolina’s political elite played a central role in legitimizing and strengthening the WCC movement. In July 1955, a group known as The Committee of 52 was formed during a meeting in Columbia. Led by influential figures such as Thomas R. Waring Jr., editor of the Charleston News and Courier; William D. Workman, a political commentator; Robert Davis, a businessman; and Farley Smith, a farmer and segregationist advocate, the committee sought to provide intellectual and political backing for segregationist policies.
The Committee of 52 included other prominent members of South Carolina society, such as the president of the state bar association, the president of the S.C. Farm Bureau Federation, and various business leaders and attorneys. These individuals described WCC members as “patriots” and “pillars of the community,” further embedding segregationist ideology within South Carolina’s social fabric.
One of the committee’s key contributions was drafting a resolution advocating for “interposition,” a legal theory that placed state sovereignty above federal rulings on segregation. Drawing on John C. Calhoun’s nullification doctrine from the antebellum era, interposition directly challenged the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which establishes federal law as paramount when it conflicts with state law.
In August 1955, the Committee of 52 submitted its interposition resolution to South Carolina’s Public School Segregation Committee, which subsequently hired attorneys to advise local school districts on maintaining segregation. The resolution was also published statewide in newspapers like the Columbia Record, where it garnered thousands of signatures from white citizens across South Carolina.
The interposition resolution claimed that federal intervention threatened both public education and racial “harmony” in South Carolina. It accused external forces like the NAACP of undermining resistance to desegregation through propaganda and pressure tactics. This rhetoric resonated with many white South Carolinians who feared social change.
Governor George Bell Timmerman Jr., an ardent segregationist, endorsed these efforts by signing the interposition resolution on February 14, 1956. The following month, he enacted legislation banning any NAACP member from holding city, county, school district, or state employment—a stark illustration of how state power was weaponized to suppress civil rights advocacy.
The rise of White Citizens’ Councils in South Carolina exemplifies how deeply entrenched white supremacy was in both the social and political structures of the mid-20th century South. Through economic coercion, legislative action, and organized resistance led by influential figures, segregationists sought to undermine federal mandates for desegregation and maintain racial hierarchies at all costs.
While these efforts inflicted significant harm on African American communities and forced many families to leave the state, they also revealed the lengths to which segregationists would go to resist change. Ultimately, these actions underscored the broader struggle for civil rights in America—a struggle that would continue to unfold over subsequent decades with profound implications for justice and equality in the United States.