Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Elmore V. Rice Et Al.: The Court Case That Defies A Narrative, Gerrit Sterk

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

Studying and explaining Elmore v. Rice et al., a voting rights case that took place in 1947 in Columbia, South Carolina, provides an opportunity to enrich a new development in the historiography of the Civil Rights Movement. How this case was supported by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP has been studied, but how it and similar early grassroots actions contributed to what some historians are now calling “the long civil rights movement” has not, one that began long before the Brown decision of 1954. Additionally, how this case emerged out of the grassroots political culture of Waverly, a middle-class Black …