Matthew J. Perry, Jr. - Columbia, SC - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Matthew James Perry, Jr. (August 4, 1921 – July 29, 2011) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Perry was in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946, and then received a Bachelor of Science degree from South Carolina State College in 1948 and an LL.B. from South Carolina State College in 1951. He was in private practice in Spartanburg, South Carolina from 1951 to 1961, and in Columbia from 1961 to 1976. He led the successful court case to integrate Clemson University in 1963 and led a major South Carolina reapportionment case in 1972. He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1974, but lost to Republican incumbent Floyd Spence.

Perry was the first African American lawyer from the Deep South to be appointed to the federal judiciary. In 1976, President Gerald Ford appointed Perry to the United States Military Court of Appeals (now the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces) in Washington, D.C.

On July 5, 1979, Perry was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 19, 1979, and received his commission the following day, thereby becoming South Carolina's first African American federal judge. He assumed senior status on October 1, 1995.

The federal courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina, is named after him.

(Perry biographical information source: Wikipedia)

Artist Maria J. Kirby-Smith captured Judge Matthew J. Perry in this monument. The statue is a slightly smaller than life-size bronze statue atop a marble base depicting Judge Perry, wearing his judge robe, seated and surrounded by three children. The young girl represents the children killed in Alabama church fires a number of years ago. The young African-American is Harvey Gantt, the first African-American admitted to Clemson University and later Charlotte mayor. The third child, a boy, represents the all-American boy. He dons overalls and even has a lizard climbing out of one of his pockets (a signature of the artist). These children all represent Judge Perry's adoration of kids.

VISIT INSTRUCTIONS:
** Be sure to avoid parking spaces on the immediate perimeter of this building that are marked for Federal Parking only.

Take a picture of yourself with the statue in the background. Visit during normal business hours and you can walk right up to it. After hours and on weekends, the gates may be locked keeping you about 15' away from the statue.

URL of the statue: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.

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