Emily deQuincy Newman
Columbian Emily deQuincey-Newman harbors no bitter feelings about an earlier era when the National DAR in 1939 refused to let prominent black opera singer Marian Anderson perform at its Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Subsequently, the DAR recognized the need for change and Marian Anderson sang at its headquarters on a number of occasions. Now, the DAR proudly practices a non-discrimination policy and encourages and celebrates diversity in its organization.
“For me that 1939 event is just a moment in our national history when segregation was a normative from which we have come a long way,” says deQuincey-Newman, who serves as regent of the Columbia chapter of the NS-DAR.
The blood of both American patriots and civil rights pioneers are in her veins. She is the daughter of the late Rev. I. deQuincey-Newman, one of South Carolina’s most prominent civil rights leaders. The Methodist minister helped organize the Orangeburg branch of the NAACP in 1943, helped found the Progressive Democratic Party, and served the South Carolina NAACP as state field director from 1960 to 1969. From 1972 to 1974, he served as executive assistant to the director of the S.C. Department of Social Services. From 1974 to 1981, he was director of the Governor’s Rural Regional Coordination Demonstration Project.
He served as U. S. special ambassador, along with Sen. John Glenn, when the Solomon Islands were granted independence from Great Britain in 1978. He was also presented at the Court of St. James that same year.
The confidante of many of South Carolina’s most distinguished leaders in government, in 1983, at age 72, he joined their ranks with his election to the South Carolina Senate. He became the first black to serve in that body since Reconstruction. Due to ill health, he resigned from the Senate in July 1985 and passed away shortly thereafter.
At his death, his friend, U. S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, said, “The Rev. Newman’s life is testimony to the transformation this country has undergone in the last 30 years. He not only was there to pry open the door of opportunity, he walked through it. In the years when equal justice under the law was only a dream for people of his race, the Rev. DeQuincey-Newman was on the front line fighting the battles that dismantled the structure of segregation and discrimination, along with Martin Luther King Jr. and Roy Wilkins.”
Like her father, Emily deQuincey-Newman is a living, breathing witness to the challenges of a turbulent period in American’s history and a champion of the strides that have been made since. As a result, Black History Month tells a story of her family as well as of her race and country. Like her father, she too is a trailblazer.
She was one of the first blacks to integrate Columbia public schools in 1964 as a fourth grader at the all-white Frank C. Withers Elementary School. She recalls saying no to her father was not an option. He said, “How can I expose other people’s children to this danger, when you won}t do it? The only reason people like us exist is to set the example.”
When asked what motivated her to join the DAR, she credited her cousin, Autier Allen-Craft, who as the first black member of the DAR in Connecticut, served as regent of the Norwalk Chapter, NS-DAR, in that state.
Although she identifies as black, the multiracial deQuincey-Newman is, according to her pedigree, genetically predominantly white. She is the descendant of five signers of the Declaration of Independence, three framers of the Constitution, James Monroe and the wife and sister of George Washington.
As a member of the NS-DAR, she has documented her descent from not just one patriot in the American Revolution but numerous ones. Her white ancestors intermarried with her black progenitors who were free people of color.
“My first patriot was John Hendrick. Other ancestral patriots include Gustavus Hendrick, David Ellington, John A. Foulkes, William Hurt, Benjamin Hurt, and William Jennings. I am a pending member of the Colonial Dames XVII Century, Governor Robert Gibbes Chapter. My qualifying ancestor was James Pulliam, father-in-law to DAR Patriot William Jennings.”
A love of history and a mastery of genealogy come naturally to her. deQuincey-Newman said, “My family was very instrumental in engaging me in genealogy. Both sides of my family were free people of color and included founding members of the Brown Fellowship Society founded in Charleston in 1790.
“For that sub-group, being able to prove free descent was imperative to avoid going into slavery after the passage of the Black Codes of 1823. My maternal grandmother, who was a descendant of the first and second Landgraves, in South Carolina would talk to me about her ancestors and those of my grandfather’s, who included Sir Thomas Hinton, the largest stockholder in the London Company, which paid for the founding of Jamestown and the Plymouth Colony.
“Additionally, my grandfather was a descendant of Elizabeth Ball Washington, the sister of George. The last of my mother’s family, the Brux, came from Santo Dominique as free people of color during the slave uprising of 1793, settling in Augusta, Georgia. One of my Charleston cousins often quips when lumped with others, ‘ We came here as passengers, not as packages.’ ”
Noting other notable ancestors, she explained, “My Father and his first cousin, Floride (Florrie) Fountain Hunter were the genealogists of their day. My paternal grandmother was the daughter of Robert Dempsey Morris, a Boston attorney, who was a Harvard graduate. His father, Robert Morris, was probably America’s first black lawyer; he was also the first black judge.
“ They also were descendants of the Scull family of Philadelphia (Penn relatives) and progenitors of the Biddle, Lippincott, and Rittenhouse families. The Morris family came to Salem, Massachusetts, from Barbados as free people of color in the late 17th century.”
Elaborating on her research, she said, “I ‘do’ my own research. I have also been blessed with the assistance of the Columbia Chapter NSDAR registrar and Bonnie Glasgow, who has a plethora of genealogical sources. She is the ‘go to’ person for genealogical answers.
“Likewise, my friend, Emily Vaughn, who understands documentation and sources for black genealogy, has indexed all known black cemeteries in Clarendon, Sumter, and Richland counties. Some are quite obscure. They can be found at the S. C. Department of Archives.”
DeQuincey-Newman is now the managing partner and administrator of Harbison Hall Assisted Living Facility built on land that once was her father’s farm. Previously, she served with the S.C. Department of Social Services and was employed by the South Carolina State Legislature.
She also was a partner in the former Andries Van Dam Antiques in the Vista. Born in Walterboro, she grew up in Columbia and graduated from Wofford College with a double major in biology and religion with a minor in history.
Prominent relatives include former Columbia City Councilman Brian deQuincey-Newman; his father, Circuit Court Judge Clifton deQuincey-Newman and his daughter, Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn deQuincey-Newman as well as Clifton’s brother, Dr. Marion Louis deQuincey-Newman. She is also related to Appeals Court Judge Allison Lee and by marriage to Supreme Court Justice Don Beatty, Judge of Mesne Conveyance Joseph Strickland, and Hallie Bacote Perry, wife of the late Federal Court Judge Matthew Perry.
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