Joseph Armstrong DeLaine (July 2, 1898 – August 3, 1974) was a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
minister and civil rights leader from
Clarendon County, South Carolina
Clarendon County is a county located below the fall line in the Coastal Plain region of U.S. state of South Carolina. As of 2020 census, its population was 31,144. Its county seat is Manning.
This area was developed for lumber and mills, inc ...
. He received a B.A. from
Allen University
Allen University is a private historically black university in Columbia, South Carolina. It has more than 600 students and still serves a predominantly Black constituency. The campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as All ...
in 1931, working as a laborer and running a dry cleaning business to pay for his education. DeLaine worked with
Modjeska Simkins and the South Carolina
NAACP on the case ''
Briggs v. Elliott
''Briggs v. Elliott'', 342 U.S. 350 (1952), on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina, challenged school segregation in Summerton, South Carolina. It was the first of the five cases combined into ''Brown v. ...
'', which challenged segregation in
Summerton, South Carolina.
DeLaine decided to leave South Carolina, and never returned, after a warrant was issued for his arrest for returning gunfire when his parsonage later came under hostile gunfire. He fled first to New York City and then to Buffalo, New York, where he founded another Methodist church. As a result of efforts begun in 1955, DeLaine was pardoned in 2000 by the South Carolina State Parole Board.
DeLaine also memorably taught school in South Carolina, and in 2006 was inducted into South Carolina's Educational Hall of Honor at the University of South Carolina.
Rev. DeLaine and three other plaintiffs in the ''Briggs v. Elliott'' case were posthumously awarded Congressional gold medals in 2004 for their courage and persistence despite repeated acts of domestic violence against them.
In popular culture
Playwright
Loften Mitchell
James Loften Mitchell (April 15, 1919 – May 14, 2001) was an American playwright and theatre historian who was part of the black American theatre movement of the 1960s.
Life and career
Mitchell was born in Columbus, North Carolina, to an Af ...
wrote a 1963 play based on DeLaine's story titled ''Land Beyond the River''.
Actor
Ossie Davis
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP ...
also wrote a short play, ''The People of Clarendon County'', which starred himself, his wife,
Ruby Dee, and
Sidney Poitier. It was featured, as was the case predating ''Brown v. Board of Education'' in which DeLaine played an important role, in Alice Bernstein's illustrated book with the same title.
External links
Rev. Joseph A. DeLainein South Carolina African American History Online
South Carolina's South Caroliniana Library and Digital Collections
* Alice Bernstein, ''The People of Clarendon County'' (2007 - ), https://www.amazon.com/People-Clarendon-County-Ossie-Davis/dp/0883782871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381767028&sr=1-1&keywords=0883782871
*
African-American Methodist clergy
American Methodist clergy
Activists for African-American civil rights
Congressional Gold Medal recipients
People from Clarendon County, South Carolina
Allen University alumni
1898 births
1974 deaths
20th-century American clergy
African-American activists
Religious leaders from South Carolina
Activists from South Carolina
20th-century Methodist ministers
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