1947: A GVL cab driver named Thomas Watson Brown was robbed + stabbed to death in Pickens County. Willie Earle, 24 at the time, was charged in Brown’s attack based upon circumstantial evidence. He was arrested + taken to the county jail. On Feb. 16, 1947, a group of taxi drivers drove to the jail and forced Earle’s release. The group then beat, stabbed + shot Earle to death.
31 taxi drivers were charged. All 31 were acquitted by a jury of 12 white men on May 21, 1947. The lynching of Willie Earle was the last lynching in the state of South Carolina as a law was signed specifying that the punishment for lynching would be the death penalty.
1959: Jackie Robinson (who shattered Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947) spoke at Greenville’s Memorial Auditorium in 1959. He was heading back home with friends at Greenville’s Municipal Airport + sat in front of a television, away from the segregated lounge. (At that time, segregation in public waiting rooms had been considered unlawful for four years.) The events that transpired sparked interest and made way for Greenville’s first successful march.
A man claiming to be a policeman, a uniformer officer + the airport’s manager told Robinson and the group to move or “be moved”. Robinson told the men he wasn’t trying to create a disturbance but that he knew the public facility law. Eventually, the group boarded the plane and left Greenville, departing with well-wishers who supported their stand.
Pastor James Hall, whose wife instigated the airport events by sitting in the whites-only lounge, felt inspired by the airport events. He organized and called for a march on Greenville Municipal Airport.
January 1, 1960: Soon thereafter, Greenville’s first successful march was made on January 1, 1960. More than 1,000 people protested the segregated airport. Pastor Hall (whose wife was in the airport during the incident with Robinson), GVL native Jesse Jackson (at home on summer break from University of Illinois) and Leola C. Robinson-Simpson (who later became Greenville’s District 25 Representative) led the way.
January 1960: Jesse Jackson, home from college in January, visited the colored branch library in Greenville: a small home on East McBee Avenue. He was searching for a book to write a paper, but the library didn’t have the one he was looking for. Jackson then went to the main library to look for it but was told he was not allowed to use that library.
July 16, 1960: Jackson came back to the main library that summer, along with seven others. The group sat and read, and within minutes all were arrested for disorderly conduct, but were released on a $30 bond.
July - September 1960: As to not risk court-ordered integration, Mayor Cass and the city council ordered the libraries to close both the white + black branches. However, public pressure forced the the libraries to reopen + integrate on Sept. 19.
1970: Greenville County Schools desegregated. Opposition groups like Concerned Black Parents, Citizens for Freedom of Choice and Citizens to Prevent Busing were formed. By February 1970, in the middle of the school year, most all-black schools were closed + many of them were turned into middle schools or career centers. At that time, 60% of black students and 10% of white students were reassigned.
2000: South Carolina became the last state to recognize MLK Day as a paid holiday.
2006: After every state + every S.C. county had voted to officially observe MLK Day, Greenville County finally voted to recognize the holiday in 2006. This was the first year that MLK Dream Weekend was held in Greenville, focusing on celebrating our diverse community + honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
