In honor of the memory of the great humanitarian, Reverend I. DeQuincey Newman, the Institute seeks to continue his mission of promoting the causes of social justice through interdisciplinary education, consultation and research at the community, state, national, and international levels.  The Institute, which is an outgrowth of the I. DeQuincey Newman Chair, was conceived in partnership with the University, the College of Social Work and interested community groups.

 THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE INSTITUTE TO THE COLLEGE:

The Institute is situated in the College of Social Work and directed by the current holder of the I. DeQuincey Newman Chair.  The current chair holder, Dr. Sadye Logan, established a strong and consistent track record in scholarship and teaching areas related to the chair.  It is believed that the establishment of the Institute in the College will serve as a necessary impetus for not only continuing Dr. Newman's legacy, but also to support and strengthen the College's ongoing commitment to diversity and social change.

INSTITUTE'S PRIORITY AREAS:

To address the myriad of concerns and issues relate to social justice, a core group of faculty members in the College of Social Work are engaged in individual and collective actions within and outside the College in four priority areas directly and indirectly to social justice. These are:

Culturally relevant ethnographic and program effectiveness research.
Curriculum development for graduate social work programs; in-service training for practitioners, and dissemination of related written materials.
Consultation and technical assistance to social agencies, government, business, and industry in matters such as race relations and the enhancement of economic growth through human service development.
Policy development and reform in areas relevant to the needs of the oppressed and populations-at-risk.

INSTITUTE'S GOALS:
Located within the College of Social Work, the goals of the Institute serve as an extension of the College's commitment to the promotion of linkages with the university community, the broader community and region.  Institute goals flow directly from the Institute priority areas.  The goals are:

To cultivate more responsive human service organizations.
To promote quality services to the elderly, especially those residing in rural areas.
To promote quality housing for low-income families.
To promote education for low-income children and families.
To research, develop, and teach principles of planned peaceful changes.

CONTACT:

Sadye L. Logan, DSW, ACSW
Institute Administrator
I. DeQuincey Newman Institute for Peace and Social Change
College of Social Work
The University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
phone: (803) 777-0468

Newman, Isaiah DeQuincey (1911-1985)

See Digital Collection of Some of his Documents

Clergyman, civil rights leader. Born in Darlington County on April 17, 1911, Newman was the son of the Reverend Melton C. Newman and Charlotte Elizabeth Morris. He attended Williamsburg County public schools and Claflin College and was ordained in the United Methodist Church (UMC) in 1931. Three years later he received his bachelor of arts degree from Clark College in Atlanta, then earned his divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta in 1937. While serving as a student pastor in Georgia, Newman met Anne Pauline Hinton of Covington, Georgia. They married on April 27, 1937, and later had one child, Emily Morris DeQuincey.

Throughout his varied and distinguished career, Newman thought of himself primarily as a minister, and it was in this role that he made his most significant contributions to South Carolina. For some forty years, he served UMC churches in Georgia and South Carolina and held key positions with the UMC’s South Carolina Conference and its General Conference. As a member of the UMC Merger Committee in the 1970s, he played a major role in bringing an end to segregated congregations.

Early in his ministry, Newman identified the struggle for racial equality as a matter of the spirit, as well as a social and political concern, and he developed a preaching style that linked morality with practicality, especially in reference to race relations. Vernon Jordan, a protégé who later became a national civil rights leader, remarked that he always listened carefully whenever Newman prayed, because he “always felt that when I. D. Newman was praying, God was listening. He seemed to have a direct line.” Newman himself noted that every aspect of his career was simply an “extension of ministry.”

In 1943 Newman assumed a key position in the emerging civil rights movement when he helped organize the Orangeburg branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Thereafter, he contributed to the NAACP in a variety of capacities, including service as South Carolina field director from 1960 to 1969, the most critical period in the civil rights struggle. Newman was a gentle, self-effacing man, patient and slow to anger, who preferred diplomacy over confrontation. A tenacious advocate for simple justice in race relations, he also believed in non-violent protest as the most effective means for achieving the goal. His quiet dignity and appeals to reason won him the confidence, and ultimately the support, of key white political and economic leaders. In effect, Newman served both as chief strategist for the protest movement and as chief negotiator at the conference table, becoming the “unofficial liaison” between African Americans and the white power structure. Alone among the Deep South states, South Carolina dismantled its structure of legalized segregation with a minimum of violence, in large measure because of his leadership and dedication to peaceful change.

Inevitably, Newman became an important player in the state’s changing political fortunes. In the 1940s, he participated peripherally in founding the Progressive Democratic Party, an effort to change the racial policies of the regular Democratic party. Although Newman had long been a staunch Republican, by 1958 he concluded that the state Republican party no longer had a place for him and other African Americans and he switched his allegiance to the Democrats. Moving quickly into his new party’s inner circles, he became a trusted confidant of such state leaders as Senator Ernest Hollings and Governors Robert McNair and John West, as well as a delegate to several Democratic national conventions.

Extending his personal ministry into the lives of ordinary people, Newman worked to improve the condition of blacks and whites in rural South Carolina. Housing, medical care, the environment, aging, vocational education, and social services in general were among the concerns for which both state and private agencies sought his counsel. In recognition of his contributions, the National Institute on Social Work in Rural Areas in 1982 named him “Rural Citizen of the Year.” Honorary degrees from state colleges and universities further acknowledged his achievements, and the University of South Carolina established a chaired professorship in Social Work in his honor.

On October 25, 1983, Newman became the first African American since 1887 to serve in the state Senate. His election and the cordial reception he received from his fellow senators, all of them white, testified symbolically to the extraordinary influence he exerted on South Carolina’s social and political development in the twentieth century. Newman served with distinction on several senate committees, until ill health forced him to resign his seat on July 31, 1985. He died in Columbia on October 21, 1985 and was buried in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens.

Bailey, N. Louise, Mary L. Morgan, and Carolyn R. Taylor, eds. Biographical Directory of the South Carolina Senate, 1776-1985. 3 vols. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1985.

Bass, Jack. Porgy Comes Home: South Carolina . . . After 300 Years. Columbia, S.C.: R. L. Bryan Company, 1972.

Grose, Philip G., Jr. “Activist Spirit Still Burns in Rev. Newman.” Columbia, S.C., The State, October 4, 1981.

Sproat, John G. “‘Firm Flexibility’: Perspectives on Desegregation in South Carolina.” In Robert H. Abzug and Stephen E. Maizlish, eds. New Perspectives on Race and Slavery in America: Essays in Honor of Kenneth M. Stampp. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.

Stucker, Jan Collins. “Did you know I. D. Newman kept you safe during desegregation?” The State Magazine, March 25, 1984.

John G. Sproat