The Spirit of an Activist: The Life and Work of I. DeQuincey Newman

Chronology

xvii Chronology Events that Shaped Reverend I. DeQuincey Newman’s Life (1911–85), the State of South Carolina, the Nation, and theWorld Social, Economic, and Political Context Newman’s Life Trajectory 1911 1912 1913 1916 1917 1919 1920 1921 1922 Former Civil War hero and Reconstruction politician Robert Smalls foiled a lynch mob by spreading rumors that Charleston would burn if jailed African Americans were harmed Wilson elected president; Septima Poinsette Clark began teaching career on Johns Island, S.C.; Booker T. Washington High School opened in Columbia, S.C. Black leaders met with President Wilson to protest segregation Wilson reelected; James Weldon Johnson appointed field secretary of NAACP NAACP chapter organized in Charleston and Columbia, S.C.; Russian Revolution; U.S. entered World War I Charleston race riot; black convict burned alive Prohibition began; white women gained voting rights; NAACP had its first significant victory convincing white Charleston leaders to hire blacks to teach in black public schools in city; Harding elected president; rebirth of Ku Klux Klan, which claimed 5 million members Dr. H. D. Monteith created the Victory Savings Bank in Columbia, S.C. Beginning of massive number of black people migrating from South Carolina; NAACP placed large ads in major newspapers to present facts about lynching Newman’s birth to Milton C. Newman and Charlotte “Lottie” Elizabeth Morris Death of Newman’s mother, Charlotte Elizabeth Morris Newman (b. 1882) Newman’s first encounter with racial hatred xviii Chronology Social, Economic, and Political Context Newman’s Life Trajectory 1923 1925 1929 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1939 Coolidge elected president Nathaniel J. Frederick founded the black newspaper Palmetto Leader in Columbia, S.C. Stock market crash; Great Depression; Hoover elected president Scottsboro Boys, nine African American defendants , falsely accused in a rape case; all but one initially sentenced to death; case later viewed as one of the most significant legal fights of the twentieth century Franklin Roosevelt elected president; jobless total reached 5 million people; New Deal began Social Security Act; National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act); NAACP lawyers Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall won legal battle to admit African American students to University of Maryland Jesse Owens broke a world record at the Olympics; Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune appointed by President Roosevelt to head National Youth Administration’s Division of Negro Affairs Founding meeting of the South Carolina NAACP State Conference of Branches headed by Rev. Alonzo W. Wright, president, and Maggie B. Robinson, secretary; World War II began; NAACP moved Marian Anderson concert to Lincoln Memorial after Daughters of Revolution barred her from performing at Constitution Hall Newman obtained his local preacher’s license Newman graduated from high school at Claflin College in Orangeburg, S.C., and enrolled at Clark College in Atlanta, Ga. Newman’s appointment as a deacon Newman graduated from Clark College; continued studies at Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga. Newman’s appointment as an elder Newman married Anne Pauline Hinton; Newman graduated from Gammon Theological Seminary Chronology xix Social, Economic, and Political Context Newman’s Life Trajectory 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 Rev. James M. Hinton elected president of the S.C. NAACP State Conference of Branches with Modjeska Monteith Simkins as secretary and Levi F. Byrd as treasurer; Rev. E. A. Adams was president of NAACP’s Columbia Chapter; NAACP led effort to ensure that President F. Roosevelt ordered a nondiscriminatory policy in war-related industries and federal employment Internment of 117,000 Japanese Americans, of whom 71,000 were native-born; Holocaust revealed S.C. NAACP State Conference suit for equalization of South Carolina’s teachers’ salaries filed in federal court (Duvall v. Charleston School Board); end of legal involuntary servitude in South Roosevelt elected to fourth term; D-day; John McCray became editor of Lighthouse and Informer, a voice for the new radical movement; Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright ended the white primary; black-led S.C. Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) organized; Osceola McKaine, black PDP candidate, ran against Gov. Olin Johnston for U.S. Senate; PDP challenged state Democratic Party delegation ’s seating at the National Democratic Convention Harry S. Truman assumes presidency after the death of FDR; bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; S.C. NAACP sued to equalize teachers’ salaries in Columbia (Thompson v. Gibbs); NAACP started national outcry when Congress refused to fund Roosevelt ’s Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) Case of John H. Wrigten v...