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. DeLaine
in 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 {{civil-rights-movement-stub