South Carolina: U.S. Post Office and Courthouse/ Judge J. Waties Waring Statue

Situated on the southwest corner of Meeting and Broad Streets, also known as the “Four Corners of the Law,” the United States Post Office and Courthouse is a Renaissance Revival style building that is sympathetic in appearance with three earlier structures, the 1792 County Courthouse, City Hall, and St. Michael’s Church. Built in 1896, the building is notable for its association with Charleston native Judge Julius Waties Waring, who handed down several notable civil rights rulings during his tenure between 1942 and 1952. Imbued with a passion for justice and outrage at the unlawfulness of segregation, Judge Waring ruled in favor of equalizing the salaries of Black and white teachers, ordered the state to equalize legal education for African Americans, opened the all-white Democratic Party primary to Black voters, and issued a powerful dissent in Briggs v. Elliott (1951) declaring, “Segregation must go and must go now. Segregation is per se inequality.” Judge Waring and his second wife, Elizabeth, were shunned by Charleston society.