Richland County · Marker 40-145
Waverly Five and Dime
2317 Gervais St., Columbia
Front inscription
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.
George Elmore and Elmore v. Rice
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.