Courage: The Vision to End Segregation and the Guts to Fight for It, opening on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the South Carolina State Museum, tells the story of a powerful grass-roots “people story” behind the Supreme Court’s landmark Civil Rights decision Brown v. Board of Education. The exhibit traces the saga of Rev. J.A. DeLaine and the brave citizens of Clarendon County who brought the first lawsuit challenging racial segregation in public schools.

As organizations and people commemorate the end of the Civil War, this exhibit reminds us that the struggle for freedom and civil rights was far from over when the war ended. Black men and women across the United States continued to fight intolerance and violence in order to exercise their rights as citizens. Few realize that one of the most important legal battles started in South Carolina. The final chapters of Brown played out in the Supreme Court, but the story began when Rev. DeLaine and his neighbors filed a lawsuit demanding the end of separate, unequal school for their children. Courage will be shown Saturday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, July 26 and is inlcuded with museum membership or general admission.