WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Students from schools divided by race come together for cleanup

Students from schools divided by race come together for cleanup

By Drew Stewart - bio | email

SUMMERTON, SC (WIS) - Summerton is the town where the battle to end school desegregation began. But more than 50 years after Briggs vs. Elliott was filed, schools in Summerton remain split along racial lines.

Students from both schools there are working together to break down racial barriers that have long split the town.

At a small park tucked away off the beaten path in a small town, huge progress is being made. The students attend school in the town of roughly 1,000 people, but few of them know each other. Now they're coming together to make up for decades of separation.

For years, the schools in Summerton have been divided along racial lines. Most of the white kids attend Clarendon Hall, while most of the African-American kids attend Scott's Branch.
     
Edwin Belser and Katherine Masincupp attend Clarendon Hall, and said they didn't know any of the Scott's Branch students before they met at the gathering Thursday. Deshawn Pearson and Zandra Prezzi are students at Scott's Branch, and said they didn't know anyone from Clarendon Hall either.
     
This situation is very familiar to Summerton native Seth Stewart. Stewart graduated from Clarendon Hall in 2001, and now is a teacher and coach at Scott's Branch.

"One of the first interactions I had was after I went to The Citadel, and one of my friends was a Scott's Branch grad, and I didn't meet him until we were both in college," said Stewart.

Thursday, students from both schools cleaned up a public park in Summerton as part of a project known as "Unite Summerton," sponsored by City Year.
     
For kids who are just getting to know each other, Thursday's project is the first step in ending a divide that has plagued children there for decades.

"It's made a big difference getting to know people, so now we know them and we can have future interactions together," said Belser.

"We live in the same community, and before today we never really did anything as a team, so it's good we came out and worked together to make the community better," said Prezzi.
 
Stewart hopes the example set by the students will be a lesson to the everyone in Summerton.

"I hope that it will spread out into the town of Summerton, to adults, kids everybody young and old, will be able to come together and we'll just have one community," Stewart said.

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