Harry and Eliza Briggs, Reverend Joseph A. DeLaine, and Levi Pearson were awarded Congressional Gold Medals posthumously in 2003.

[5] However, black children attended school in abandoned hunting or Masonic lodges and often drafty cabins adjacent to churches.

Black children brought coal or wood to burn in oil drums for heat, and purchased textbooks that were discarded from white students.

[6] The black children of Clarendon County often had harsh commutes to attend school, including rowing paddle boats to cross bodies of water.

[11] Elliott refused, saying that black citizens did not pay enough taxes to warrant a bus and that asking white taxpayers to fund that burden would be unfair.

[11][12] To advance his efforts for safe transportation for black children, Pearson retained South Carolina attorney Harold Boulware and rising NAACP star Thurgood Marshall.

[13] Marshall argued that, since the local school board already provided bus transportation for white students, the county was in violation of the United States Supreme Court's “separate but equal” decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

As a result of his lawsuit, Pearson v. Clarendon County, Levi Pearson suffered from acts of domestic terror, such as gun shots fired into his home, as well as economic consequences: local banks refused to provide him with credit to purchase farming materials and area farmers refused to lend him equipment.

[17] The rejection of Pearson v. Clarendon County caused the NAACP attorneys to pivot and raise their target to complete desegregation.

[5] In 1949, the NAACP agreed to provide funding and sponsor a case that would go beyond transportation and ask for equal educational opportunities in Clarendon County.

Originally litigated by NAACP lawyer Robert L. Carter, the Briggs case was notable for introducing into evidence the experiments of Kenneth and Mamie Clark, who used dolls to study children's attitudes about race.

Even so, the schools were underfunded, teachers were underpaid, and local white-led governments were generally unsupportive of African Americans receiving an equal education.

Spottswood Robinson and Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiffs, and former Solicitor General and presidential candidate John W. Davis led the argument for the defense.

Reverend Joseph DeLaine, the generally acknowledged leader of Summerton's African-Americans, was fired from his post at a local school in Silver.

[23] Judge Waring had already been shunned by the white community in Charleston and subjected to attacks for previous decisions favorable to equal rights.