B.B. DeLaine: ‘Quiet crusader’ whose family changed history dies at 74

It wasn’t enough just to be Rev. J.A. DeLaine’s son, and watch his father’s courage.

In the early 1950s, J.A. DeLaine spearheaded a lawsuit in Clarendon County, S.C., that led to the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing segregated public schools. It cost him his church, his home and nearly his life.

All the while, his son B.B. DeLaine watched and learned – and found the doggedness to continue in Charlotte his father’s fight for equal rights.

As a senior at Johnson C. Smith University in 1960, he helped organize and lead sit-ins at Charlotte’s segregated uptown lunch counters. Later, he’d be the first black teacher in Chappaqua, N.Y., and then at Charlotte’s Garinger High.

Early Thursday, Brumit B. DeLaine, who would carry his father’s quiet determination all his life, died at Presbyterian Hospital after battling cancer and congestive heart failure for two years. He was 74.

When he heard the news, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., reflected on B.B. DeLaine and his family:

“He was the product of a family that believed that each of us is our brother’s keeper,” Clyburn said. “… B.B. turned the trials of his childhood into action. His story is the story of the civil rights movement. His family are unsung heroes who changed the course of history.”

A memorial service is being planned, his older brother, Joe DeLaine, said.

“Like my father, my brother was not only a quiet crusader, but very determined to push for things that improved people’s lives,” Joe DeLaine said Thursday. “When I became his primary caregiver, I began to find out from people things he’s done for them that he’d never mention.

“He didn’t look for praise. He looked for justice.”

B.B. DeLaine’s resolve began in Summerton, S.C., where black children went to school in dilapidated buildings and learned from hand-me-down books stamped with “colored only” so they knew their place.

In the 1940s, most students had to walk miles to get to school because the public system wouldn’t provide a bus. As the local NAACP president, Rev. DeLaine prodded for a new bus, but the all-white school board said no.

So black parents, led by DeLaine, took their fight to the courts. After one suit failed, DeLaine recruited Harry and Eliza Briggs to sue for equal education opportunities for their children.

In May 1951, a federal panel of three judges heard the Briggs case, and ruled that Clarendon County had to make black and white schools equal, but not integrated.

They appealed, and their case and four others were folded into Brown vs. Topeka, Kan. Board of Education, ultimately heard by the Supreme Court. In May 1954, the court ruled that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional – and effectively outlawed segregated public schools.

It was a proud moment for B.B. DeLaine, who was 16.

“My brother was right there and the courage of those people had an impact on him,” Joe DeLaine said. “I was older and not at home. But he was in the thick of it and saw it unfold.”

But the family began receiving threats before B.B. graduated and enrolled at Allen University in Columbia in fall 1955.

That October, Rev. DeLaine got a threatening letter to leave. He refused. Seven days later, one of his three churches in Clarendon County burned. On the 10th night, a car stopped in front of his house and someone fired shots. DeLaine fired back with a rifle.

That night he fled South Carolina.

“There was a warrant for his arrest, and he and my mother moved to New York, where he was essentially granted political asylum until they moved to Charlotte in 1971,” B.B. said in the 2009 interview.

B.B. had to leave Allen University and enrolled at Charlotte’s Johnson C. Smith University. He went on to become a school system administrator – helping in the early 1970s to implement a judge’s order to desegregate Charlotte-area schools.

In 2004, J.A. DeLaine, Levi Pearson and the Briggses were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, America’s top civilian award.

This story was originally published June 15, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "B.B. DeLaine: ‘Quiet crusader’ whose family changed history dies at 74."