Elizabeth Waring
*Elizabeth Waring was born on this date in 1895. She was a white-American philanthropist and activist.
Elizabeth Amy Avery was born in Detroit, Michigan. Married twice, she was the wife of Wilson Mills (1915) and Henry Hoffman (1934), both wealthy businessmen. In those years, she and her first husband would often spend winters in South Carolina, and on one occasion, she ventured to the low country and met Septima Clark. Clark received her teaching certificate from Avery Normal Institute in Charleston and her B.A. from Benedict College in Columbia, SC, in 1942.
A lasting friendship ensued despite the daily and compelling elements of racial segregation. In 1945, she married Julius Waring, a recently appointed state supreme court judge by Franklin Roosevelt. Born into a wealthy, liberal family, she had always been a progressive on race issues. Elizabeth urged her husband to be more conscious of his power and influence, and to examine the problems of race with greater scrutiny and compassion.
On January 17, 1950, she spoke at the Charleston YWCA in response to a ‘Meet the Press’ telecast the day before. Its theme was to underscore the pending court decision on voting and public education. It used her husband’s famous Opinion, giving the right to vote to the Blacks in the Primary Elections in South Carolina. My husband said, “IT IS TIME TO GET IN STEP, IT IS TIME FOR SOUTH CAROLINA TO REJOIN THE UNION.”
Elizabeth Waring died on October 30, 1968, in Charleston, SC.
