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Waverly Five and Dime

Richland County · dedicated 2008 · 2317 Gervais St., Columbia, Columbia

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Front: The Waverly Five & Dime, located here until about 1957, was managed 1945-48 by George A. Elmore (1905-1959), the African American plaintiff in a landmark voting rights case soon after World War II. Elmore ran this store and two liquor stores, and also worked as a photographer and cab driver. In 1946, when he tried to vote in the all-white Democratic primary in Richland County, he was denied a ballot. Reverse: In 1947 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued to end the all-white primary in S.C. Judge J. Waties Waring (1880-1948) ruled in U.S. district court that it was “time for S.C. to rejoin the Union.” Blacks voted in the next S.C. primary, in 1948. As a result of the case, George Elmore endured numerous personal threats and economic reprisals that ruined his business.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Marker data: South Carolina Historical Marker Program, SC Department of Archives and History

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