South Carolina: Voting Rights, Desegregation, and Economic Growth

World War II and the postwar period brought great changes. A state court decision in 1947 opened the Democratic primaries to African-American voters. Under the governorship (1951–55) of the nationally prominent James F. Byrnes, the poll tax was abolished as a voting requirement, steps were taken to curb Ku Klux Klan activities, and the educational system was greatly expanded. Integration of the schools after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision met considerable opposition, but in 1963 South Carolinians accepted token integration of Clemson College without incident, and desegregation began in the Charleston schools. By 1970 all of the state's public school districts were technically in compliance with federal desegregation requirements. That year four African Americans were elected to the previously all-white state legislature.

In the 1970s and 80s, South Carolina experienced economic growth similar to other Sun Belt states. Low tax rates and a large nonunion workforce have attracted many firms from other states as well as foreign countries. In the 1990s job losses from the closing of naval facilities at North Charleston were largely offset by private undertakings, and the Greenville-Spartanburg area in the northwest was rapidly becoming home to new industries.

Republican Mark Sanford (2003-11) was involved in a scandal in 2009 when he admitted to having an extramarital affair; despite censure by the State's General Assembly, he finished his second term. He successor, Republican Nikki Haley (2011-17), was the state's first woman and person of Indian descent to hold the office. She made headlines by supporting removing the Confederate flag from the state's capitol grounds in 2015. Haley resigned in 2017 to become UN ambassador and was succeeded by Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster, who was elected governor in 2018.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Voting Rights, Desegregation, and Economic Growth
• The Decline of Agriculture and the Rise of Jim Crowism
• Civil War and Reconstruction
• Pre–Civil War Discontent
• The Coming of Revolution
• South Carolina as a Royal Colony
• Life under Proprietary Rule
• French, Spanish, and English Colonization
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures
• Bibliography

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