The group of friends were arrested after visiting Edisto Beach State Park on July 4, 1965
With so many choices for how to mark the holiday, what is one to do on July 4th in the Lowcountry? Go to the beach with friends and family? Do something patriotic to commemorate the founding of our country? On July 4, 1965, a group of friends did both those activities, and although they were arrested, they eventually helped to change society and reinvigorate the principles of our country.
The friends, a group of Black and white men and women, would become known as the “Edisto 13.” They were all students, including five who were attending the University of California, Berkeley and two visiting from New York, while the remaining were locals. Though two were law students, most had been in Charleston to help register people to vote by participating in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Needing a release that hot July day, the friends headed south to Edisto Beach State Park, which had been built as a whites-only facility during the Great Depression by workers employed by the federal government through the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1956, the Charleston chapter of the NAACP filed suit against the segregated South Carolina park system. Sensing they would lose in court, state officials closed the park at Edisto—including the cabins, concession stand, and beach—to all visitors. As more lawsuits were filed, the entire state park system closed down in 1963 instead of integrating.
When the 13 headed toward the beach that day, they found the gates closed and “no trespassing” signs. After seeing white people making use of the concession stand, they decided to take the plunge into the ocean. State troopers arrested them, but not the white beachgoers. The 13 students were charged and tried on Edisto, where they were defended by Matthew Perry, who later became South Carolina’s first African American federal judge. All were found guilty, but the charges were later dropped.
On July 4, 2005, 40 years to the day after their arrest, seven of the 13 reassembled at Edisto to celebrate the vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that all citizens expect from America—and to finally go for their swim. “It’s a different world now,” Geraldine Gallashaw, one of the 13, said at the time.
