Negro Youth Sues to Enter All-White Clemson College

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Negro Youth Sues to Enter All-White Clemson College, 1962. 5cf4fd29-bd92-ee11-be37-6045bddb811f. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/cac1c088-a285-4c30-a778-3051f9c3ea59/negro-youth-sues-to-enter-all-white-clemson-college. Accessed May 18, 2025.

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    “PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
1OCOLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

SB 25 

NEGRO YOUTH SUES TO ENTER 
ALL-WHITE CLEMSON COLLEGE July 9, 1962 

NEW YORK -- An attack on segregated undergraduate schools in South 

Carolina was launched today with the filing of a Federal District 

Court suit which asks that a Negro student be admitted to Clemson 

College in Columbia, S. C, 

The suit was filed on behalf of 20-year old Harvey B, Gantt and 

his father Christopher Gantt of Charleston. The NAACP Legal Defense 

Fund complaint asked that the youth be admitted to Clemson in 

September 1962, 

The complaint was filed by attorney Matthew J. Perry of Columbia, 

S.C, It asked that Clemson officials be restrained "from refusing 

to consider the applications of Negro residents of South Carolina for 

admission to Clemson College upon the same terms and conditions 

applicable to white applicants." Clemson is an agricultural college 

Maintained by state funds. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys state that Gantt has twice 

applied to Clemson. His first application was turned down in January 

1961 because the State was paying the difference between South 

Carolina and out-of-state enrollment for Gantt who, for the past two 

years, has been attending Iowa State College. His second application, 

made in December 1961, is still pending. 

The Fund complaint alleges that Gantt has not been admitted to 

Clemson even though he has met all requirements for admission and 

that white students who applied after Gantt have been admitted. 

Gantt comes from a family of 5 children in Charleston and is a 

graduate of Rhett Elementary School and Burke High School where he 

finished second in his class in June 1960. While at Burke High 

School, he played varsity football and was active in a popular sing- 

ing group in Charleston called "The Crooners". He is now studying 

architecture at Iowa State. 



Os 

Gantt says he plans to make South Carolina his home and, there- 

fore, wants to go to a state college. He said today, however, that 

he feels his suit to enter Clemson “would be much like another step 

up the ladder for first-class citizens for Negroes. I feel I will 

have helped in opening the door for other Negro boys and girls to 

better educational opportunities in South Carolina." 

No date for hearing has been set as yet. NAACP Lecal Defense 

Fund attorneys for the plaintiffs are Matthew J, Perry and Lincoln 

Jenkins, Jr. of Columbia, S. C.; Donald J. Sampson and Willie T. 

Smith, Jr. of Greenville, S. C., and Jack Greenberg and Constance 

Baker Motley of New York City. 

The suit was filed in the Greenville, S. C. Division of the U. S. 

District Court for the Western District of South Carolina. 

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Negro Youth Sues to Enter All-White Clemson College

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