CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the first federal judge to write an opinion challenging separate but equal decades after the policy was declared the law by the U.S. Supreme Court was morally right and historically gutsy.
Holder came to Charleston Friday for the dedication of a statue outside the courthouse where Judge Waties (way-TEES’) Waring heard cases.
Waring’s opinions in civil rights cases involving equal pay for black teachers, allowing blacks to vote in the state Democratic primary and school desegregation made him an outcast in his native Charleston during the days of segregation.
Holder says he talked to President Barack Obama about Waring before his trip and they agreed the judge was a great man and it was too long of a wait to honor him.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.