Woman denied attempt to vote in SC dies in Mass.

BOSTON (AP) - Lillian Bonner Sutson, a little-known civil rights activist whose attempts to register as a voter in South Carolina set a precedent in the fight against segregation and voting discrimination in the South, has died in Massachusetts.

Her grandson, Marcus Jones, said Wednesday that Sutson died of age-related causes Monday at a nursing home in Saugus. She was believed to be 99.

Sutson, the granddaughter of a slave, went with her mother and two other African-American women to register as Democrats in 1940 in Gaffney, S.C. They were denied, threatened and verbally abused, sparking a federal criminal case. Thurgood Marshall served as their attorney.

They lost the case, but Marshall used the experience to pursue others that ultimately helped strike down voter discrimination and segregation.

Cox Media Group