RICHARD REID
Special to The T&D
Fifty years ago, Orangeburg County initiated an educational system that completely changed the course of the social side of life for the people both Black and white.
While the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision on segregated schools in 1954, South Carolina and Orangeburg County delayed full desegregation until the 1970 school year when the last appeal was denied.
That year was the beginning of school consolidation for Orangeburg County.
In 1963, the first Blacks enrolled into the all-white schools in the City of Orangeburg.
Then in 1964, Orangeburg began operating under a âfreedom of choiceâ plan. The separate but equal facilities for the Blacks and for the whites gave way, slowly but surely, to an integrated system of consolidating the schools.