South Carolina H 4372: A HOUSE RESOLUTION TO CONGRATULATE MEGAN GORDON FOR BEING NAMED MISS SOUTH CAROLINA USA FOR 2017 AND FOR PLACING IN THE TOP FIVE IN THE MISS USA PAGEANT AND TO HONOR HER FOR HER EXCEPTIONAL POISE, TALENT, AND BEAUTY.

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4372 Text of Previous Version (Apr. 23, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4372

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A house RESOLUTION

TO COMMEND CECIL 
J. WILLIAMS OF ORANGEBURG COUNTY FOR FOUNDING THE SOUTH CAROLINA CIVIL RIGHTS 
MUSEUM, WHICH DISPLAYS HIS PHOTOGRAPHS CHRONICLING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN 
SOUTH CAROLINA, AND TO CONGRATULATE HIM ON THE UPCOMING EXPANSION OF THE 
MUSEUM'S FOOTPRINT AS PART OF THE RAILROAD CORNER DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT 
PROJECT.

Whereas, the House of 
Representatives is honored to recognize photographer Cecil J. Williams of 
Orangeburg County for his efforts to ensure that South Carolina's role in the Civil 
Rights Movement receives accurate recognition. Born on November 26, 1937, when 
state laws forced racial segregation, Cecil Williams began to photograph social 
issues facing his community and State as a youth. His work first appeared in 
Jet Magazine and other Black publications, and later in national news outlets; 
and

Whereas, for two 
decades, he chronicled the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina, beginning 
with images of courageous Clarendon County residents who challenged public 
school segregation in the Briggs v. Elliott lawsuit, to include photographs of 
Harry and Eliza Briggs, the Reverend J.A. DeLaine, who helped shepherd the 
litigation, and an iconic image of their attorney, Thurgood Marshall. The first 
of five cases filed challenging racial segregation in public schools, the 
lawsuit would be decided as part of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of 
Education of Topeka case in which the United States Supreme Court declared public 
school racial segregation unconstitutional; and

Whereas, he continued 
to make a record of the state's role in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s 
with images showcasing ordinary individuals speaking truth to power, such as a 
photograph of Black Orangeburg residents boycotting local businesses that had 
retaliated against fellow citizens for petitioning to desegregate the Orangeburg 
public schools based on the Brown decision. This boycott preceded the 
more well-known Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott by several months; and

Whereas, his pictorial 
chronicle of the 1960s was wide-ranging, beginning in February 1960 on the 
heels of the first Greensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter sit-in, when he 
documented attempted small-scale sit-ins by Claflin and S.C. State students at 
the local Kress and accompanying marches, and on March 15, 1960, what would be 
the largest student-led peaceful demonstration at that time nationwide, in 
which first responders used fire hoses and tear gas on the 1,000 student demonstrators, 
of whom hundreds were arrested and confined outdoors in rainy, cold weather at 
the county jail known as the Pink Palace. A photograph of the students singing 
behind the fence, taken by Cecil Williams, appeared on the front page of The 
New York Times the following day; and

Whereas, wanting to correct 
the narrative of our state's overlooked role in the Civil Rights Movement, in 
2019, Cecil Williams, and his wife, Barbara, and sister, Brenda, opened the 
South Carolina Civil Rights Museum, using personal funds, to showcase many of 
his photographs and other memorabilia. In the coming months, the museum will move 
into a substantially larger space at Railroad Corner in downtown Orangeburg, expanding 
the museum's footprint to a more historically significant location for 
educating others about South Carolina's role in the Civil Rights Movement, a 
story captured almost singlehandedly by Cecil Williams and his cameras. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House 
of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, commend 
Cecil J. Williams of Orangeburg County for founding the South Carolina Civil Rights 
Museum, which displays his photographs chronicling the Civil Rights Movement in 
South Carolina, and to congratulate him on the upcoming expansion of the 
museum's footprint as part of the Railroad Corner downtown redevelopment project.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution 
be presented to Cecil J. Williams.

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