On Monday morning August 31, 1964, twenty-four children from many families across Columbia stepped into history.  They were told they could only go to school with children who looked like them.  They were told that Columbia and South Carolina were not ready for change.  They were told that they were not prepared and that they would not succeed.

But they walked.  Some were anxious.  Some were nervous.  Some were excited.  But they walked.  Some walked together.  Some walked alone.  Some walked in front of cameras and television crews.  Some found their photographs on the front page of newspapers around the country.  They walked. They and their parents believed that schools should be a place for all students from diverse backgrounds.  They and their parents believed that they were more than ready and that now was the time for change. The initial schools in the Richland One desegregation plan included: Dreher High School, Hand Junior High School, Withers Elementary School, Wardlaw Junior High School, Columbia High School, and Rosewood Elementary School, featuring in an iconic image published in the New York Times.

One of the students, Oliver Washington, Jr., later remarked: “I personally believe that unless the children appreciate the past, they’ll be destined to repeat the failures of the past and their future will be desolate.”