When Harry Briggs signed the petition that led to a lawsuit seeking equal rights for black students in Clarendon County, S.C., in 1949, he effectively signed away the life he had always known.

He and his wife, Eliza, were fired from jobs as a gas station attendant and hotel worker. Both were blacklisted in the small town of Summerton; Mr. Briggs couldn't even support his family by selling crops to local businesses.

Of 180 names signed on the original petition, mostly low-income black workers, only 20 remained when Mr. Briggs filed suit in 1950. Eighteen of those 20, including the Briggses, left town, never to return.

Although Briggs v. Elliott and four other complaints realized victory in the U. S. Supreme Court as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, Nathaniel Briggs, 62, believes the sacrifices made by his parents and other families during the case have been diminished in the pages of history.

Speaking to students at Imani Christian Academy in the East Hills on Friday, he made a direct connection between sacrifices made by those five families and the value of education in a time where the right is often taken for granted.

"The Brown decision was the greatest thing since the Emancipation Proclamation for America," he said. "It put laws on the books that Dr. King and Rosa Parks could challenge.

"Any school system, any taxpayer, the state could deny us anything guaranteed under the 14th Amendment. Very few people, especially black folk, understand this."

Imani principal Marilyn Barnett agreed that the average person doesn't know much about Brown beyond its ultimate outcome, and said she brought Mr. Briggs in to train staff in teaching the subject.

Imani, a predominately black kindergarten through grade 12 school that caters to at-risk students, features a unit on Brown at every grade level.

"When they're only in kindergarten, maybe they all don't get it," Dr. Barnett said. "So we repeat that lesson in first grade, and the year after, and the year after that.

"By the time they reach the eighth grade, they're going to be able to write a position paper, to engage in the type of critical thinking that will help some of them become politicians and attorneys."

Being familiar with the subject allowed students to engage in the discussion in a way Mr. Briggs said he doesn't often see in college classrooms.

"Every kid in there knew Thurgood Marshall, it's remarkable," he said. "I go to some colleges and they look at me dumbfounded when I mention him."

Students in the middle school level were so involved in the discussion, several ate lunch with Mr. Briggs so they could continue asking questions. Seventh-grader Jasmynn Keyes, 13, said the session has already had an impact on student behavior.

"Students take more responsibility in the classroom," she said. "Before, we would have someone running around, and if someone told them to sit down, it would cause an argument. Now there's no argument.

"Mr. Briggs taught us to listen to each other because we really need to get our education together."

Ricki Robinson, 13, an eighth-grader, said: "I think if everybody was taught more about Brown, they would [view] education in a different way. People would think, 'If somebody fought for me, why can't I fight for myself?' "

For the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 2004, the Briggs family was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and the NAACP's Charles Hamilton Houston Award, and were granted honorary doctorate degrees from South Carolina State University.

But the greatest reward to Mr. Briggs, who never had an opportunity to graduate from a desegregated school, is knowing students walk the path trodden partially through his parents' efforts, and do so in their honor.

"Imani Christian Academy was refreshing, new," he said. "I saw hope in that corner of the city."

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