Remembering the De Laines from Manning

Clemson University recently held a first-time lecture to honor the state’s place in civil rights history—including the roles several South Carolinians played in shaping the state and country’s drive for equality.  The Joseph and Mattie De Laine Lecture Series was held October 19 in the ballroom of the Madren Conference Center.  It featured historic documents, artifacts and interview excerpts that shed light on the role that the De Laines played to bring the first of five cases that would go on to end school segregation through the Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education.  A principal and church pastor, Mr. DeLaine urged a group of citizens to file suit in 1948 after being denied transportation for black children who walked nine miles to schools designated for them.