S*1106 Resolution, By Jackson
 A SENATE RESOLUTION TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE STUDENTS AND LEADERS OF THE
 CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH
 ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAJOR SUPREME COURT CASES FORWARDING THE CAUSE OF EQUAL
 CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL.

   03/11/14  Senate Introduced and adopted (Senate Journal-page 9)

TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE STUDENTS AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAJOR SUPREME COURT CASES FORWARDING THE CAUSE OF EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL.

Whereas, in South Carolina's capital city, courageous student activists, attorneys, and civil rights organizations waged a tenacious campaign to transform our community. Facing stiff opposition, these freedom fighters took action and forever changed a city, state, and nation; and

Whereas, on February 1, 1960, four African-American students at Greensboro's North Carolina A&T University sat at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter and requested service. Their simple demand for equality ignited a generation and intensified the struggle for social justice in the American South. Inspired by the "Greensboro Four," young black South Carolinians conducted marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations in a determined campaign to dismantle segregation. In Rock Hill, Columbia, Greenville, Sumter, Florence, Orangeburg, Denmark, Spartanburg, and Charleston, students from colleges and high schools engaged in a series of public protests as they called for an end to racial segregation; and

Whereas, by the 1960s, the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP established a reputation for utilizing direct protest and court-centered litigation to dismantle the legal foundations of racial segregation. The organization's team of brilliant legal minds, led by Matthew J. Perry, successfully argued cases to equalize teacher salaries, end the "whites only" Democratic Party, and abolish segregation in public schools and transportation. Following the emergence of the student protest movement in the spring of 1960, NAACP lawyers provided legal assistance to arrested students; and

Whereas, on March 2, 1961, one hundred eighty-seven protesters were arrested for disturbing the peace following a planned demonstration on the South Carolina State House grounds. A lawsuit filed on their behalf, Edwards v. South Carolina, reached the United States Supreme Court. On February 25, 1963, the court ruled that the 14th Amendment forbids a state "to make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views" and opened the door to continued demonstrations nationwide; and

Whereas, of the hundreds of sit-in cases prosecuted nationally, the United States Supreme Court heard seventeen, including four from South Carolina. Three of those cases, Peterson v. Greenville (1963), Barr v. Columbia (1964), and Bouie v. Columbia (1964), established durable precedents striking down state-enforced segregation and affirming protesters' right to free speech and access to public spaces. The 1964 decisions helped ensure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and

Whereas, this year, the citizens of our great State celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of these landmark Supreme Court cases. The Senate takes much pleasure in saluting the South Carolina students and leaders whose contributions helped make possible the successful outcome of these cases and, ultimately, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, recognize and honor the students and leaders of the civil rights struggle in South Carolina and commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the major Supreme Court cases forwarding the cause of equal civil rights for all.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be provided to Columbia SC 63.