South Carolina H 3415: State sales tax, exemptions

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3415 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 06, 2024) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3415

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

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

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING SECTION 
53-3-320 SO AS TO DESIGNATE JUNE TWENTY-SECOND OF EACH YEAR AS "SARAH MAE 
FLEMMING DAY" IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

Whereas, Sarah Mae 
Flemming, the forerunner of Rosa Parks, for many years remained an unsung hero 
in the annals of civil rights. It was a little publicized civil rights case 
involving public transportation in Columbia that helped Rosa Parks and her 
lawyers prevail in a lawsuit challenging segregation on buses in Montgomery, 
Alabama. This case became the Flemming legacy; and

Whereas, Flemming was 
born on June 28, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the eldest of Mack 
and Rosetta Flemming's seven children. The granddaughter of slaves, Flemming 
grew up on her family's own land: one hundred thirty acres, five miles north of 
what is now downtown Eastover. She would eventually die of a heart attack on 
that same land, just shy of her sixtieth birthday; and

Whereas, Flemming 
slipped into history the morning of June 22, 1954, when she, a Black maid, took 
a front seat on a then segregated city bus operated by South Carolina Electric 
and Gas (SCE&G). The line dividing the races on South Carolina buses served 
as one of the most visible daily reminders of segregation. Enforced by bus 
drivers vested with the powers of a deputy sheriff, the line was inscribed into 
a body of state laws that had for three generations separated Blacks and 
Whites. On Columbia buses, the color line shifted, depending on whether more 
Black or White people were riding. One thing remained firm: Whites never sat 
behind Blacks. On that historic morning, Flemming took a seat in what she 
deemed an appropriate area; and

Whereas, after she had 
taken her seat, a White Columbia bus driver humiliated the 20-year-old Black 
woman from Eastover, blocking her with his arm and accusing her of sitting in 
the "Whites only" part of the bus. Through this incident, which occurred seventeen 
months before Rosa Parks took her stand against segregation on city buses in 
Montgomery, Alabama, Flemming challenged segregation on SCE&G buses in 
Columbia; and

Whereas, encouraged by 
several well-known civil rights activists and attorneys, she filed suit against 
SCE&G. Rebuffed in federal court in Columbia, Flemming's case traveled to 
the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, which struck down segregation 
on city buses. The ruling was widely ignored but is cited in the decision on 
the far better publicized Rosa Parks case, which led to the end of segregated 
buses; and

Whereas, in 1955, 
Flemming's win in court was big news in Black newspapers across the country. 
The bigger news is that this young woman, in the face of Southern Jim Crow 
politics, took a step that forever changed the face of civil rights in the 
South. Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Chapter 3, Title 53 of the S.C. Code is amended by 
adding:

 Section 
53-3-320. June twenty-second of each year, the date on which Sarah Mae 
Flemming challenged segregation on city buses in Columbia, South Carolina, is 
declared to be "Sarah Mae Flemming Day" in South Carolina.

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval 
by the Governor.

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This web page was last updated on December 06, 2024 at 11:45 AM