Bill Text: SC H3949 | 2019-2020 | 123rd General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Isaiah DeQuincey Newman
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 79-44)
Status: (Passed) 2019-02-12 - Introduced and adopted [H3949 Detail]
Download: South_Carolina-2019-H3949-Introduced.html
A HOUSE RESOLUTION
TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR ISAIAH DEQUINCEY NEWMAN, THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ELECTED TO SERVE IN THE STATE SENATE SINCE 1887, AND TO EXPRESS PROFOUND GRATITUDE FOR HIS PIONEERING IN THE MODERN ERA THAT GUIDED AND FACILITATED PEACEFUL CHANGE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Whereas, it is altogether fitting that the South Carolina House of Representatives should pause in its deliberation to acknowledge Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, the first African American elected to serve in the state Senate since 1887; and
Whereas, the period in United States history from 1865 to 1877 following the Civil War is called Reconstruction, during which attempts were made to redress inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve problems of readmitting the eleven states that had seceded from the Union; and
Whereas, an experiment in interracial democracy, Reconstruction brought far-reaching changes to America's political life, including new national laws and constitutional amendments that forever altered the federal system and the definition of American citizenship; and
Whereas, in the South, a politically mobilized black community came together with white allies during Reconstruction to fill offices until the period ended. In the modern era, African-American leaders emerged to renew the work of those Reconstruction leaders; and
Whereas, the son of the Reverend Melton C. Newman and Charlotte Elizabeth Morris, Isaiah DeQuincey Newman was born in Darlington County on April 17, 1911, and was educated in Williamsburg County public schools and Claflin College; and
Whereas, ordained in the United Methodist Church (UMC) in 1931, he earned a bachelor's degree from Clark College in Atlanta in 1934, and a divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta in 1937; and
Whereas, as a student pastor in Georgia, Mr. Newman married Anne Pauline Hinton of Covington, Georgia, on April 27, 1937, and this union was blessed with one child, Emily Morris DeQuincey; and
Whereas, in 1943, he assumed a key position in the emerging Civil Rights Movement when he helped to organize the Orangeburg branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He served as both chief strategist for the protest movement and chief negotiator at the conference table, becoming the unofficial liaison between African Americans and the white power structure. He participated peripherally in the 1940s in founding the Progressive Democratic Party, an effort to change the racial policies of the regular Democratic Party; and
Whereas, on October 25, 1983, Mr. Newman became the first African American since 1887 to serve in the South Carolina Senate, serving with distinction on several Senate committees until ill health forced him to resign on July 31, 1985. He passed away in Columbia on October 21, 1985; and
Whereas, alone among the Deep South states, South Carolina dismantled its structure of legalized segregation with a minimum of violence, in large measure because of his leadership and dedication to peaceful change. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and honor Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, the first African American elected to serve in the state Senate since 1887, and express profound gratitude for his pioneering in the modern era that guided and facilitated peaceful change in South Carolina.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Isaiah DeQuincey Newman.
