September 12, 1963

As protest marches continue in Columbia, the “Committee of 50” adopts a resolution calling on motel, hotel, and theater owners to desegregate. Later this month, the Downtowner Motel (corner of Lady and Main streets) agrees to do so. Read More

September 22, 1963

Following the murders of three young girls in Birmingham, Alabama in a church bombing, over 1,000 people in Columbia took part in a memorial march. Beginning at Sidney Park CME church, they marched to the South Carolina State House where they sang “We Shall Overcome.”… Read More

November 18-19, 1963

The annual meeting of the South Carolina Council on Human Relations is held in the newly desegregated Downtowner Hotel in Columbia. Read More

December 20, 1963

Reverend I. DeQuincey Newman announces that more demonstrations will be held despite objections from the “Committee of 50.”… Read More

June 22, 1964

The United States Supreme Court reverses the convictions of Simon Bouie, Talmadge Neal, Charles Barr and the other participants in the “sit-in” protests of March 1960. The decisions in the two cases, Simon Bouie, et al v. City of Columbia and Charles Barr, et al v. City of Columbia, make… Read More

September 1964

Over ten years after the ruling of Brown v Board of Education, the desegregation of Catholic and public schools begin in Columbia. Schools in Charleston had been forced to desegregate by court order the year before. Read More

April 29, 1965

The South Carolina NAACP leads a march from Allen University to the South Carolina State House to protest racial and class discrimination in the implementation of the Economic Opportunity Act. Read More