Last updated: September 7, 2024
Person
Harold Boulware
Quick Facts
Significance:
Chief attorney in Briggs v. Elliott desegregation case.
Place of Birth:
Irmo, South Carolina
Date of Birth:
Mar. 1, 1913
Date of Death:
Jan. 27, 1983
Place of Burial:
Irmo, South Carolina
Cemetery Name:
Upper Pine Grove Cemetery
Harold R. Boulware, a Black civil rights lawyer from Columbia, S.C. served as chief counsel for the South Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) starting in 1941.
As a representative of the NAACP, he was instrumental in helping improve educational opportunities for black children in Clarendon County. He served as one of the prosecuting attorneys in Clarendon County School’s desegregation case, Briggs et. al. v Elliott et. al. With Briggs v Elliott, he was responsible for drawing up the petition for Superintendent of schools L.B. McCord and the school board, requesting school transportation in the form of a bus for Black children in District Twenty-Six. When the petition went unanswered for almost 4 months, Boulware requested a hearing with McCord.
When yet again no reply was forthcoming, he filed a petition in Florence County which was adjacent to Clarendon County. With this petition, he requested the issuance of an injunction against the school board to prohibit them from making a distinction on the basis of race or color in providing school transportation for the school children of School District Twenty-Six.
This request was one of the earliest times Black parents in this district had asserted their rights as citizens for equality in public schools. Later in 1952 Boulware, along with other NAACP attorneys, prepared the briefs for Briggs v Elliott, Brown v Board, and Davis v County School Board of Prince Edward County, all of which opposed segregation and would be heard by the Supreme Court.