| Introduction of Judge Matthew J. Perry, Jr. Into the South Carolina Hall of Fame
Congressman James E. Clyburn
“Diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”
January 8, 2007
These profound words, uttered by Maya Angelou are very fitting for this occasion today. As a former social studies and World History teacher, I know that South Carolina’s history is truly a tapestry of rich diversity. We have just heard of the contributions of Statesman and General, Peter Horry. His contributions to a fledgling South Carolina are significant, and yet not so different from those of the man I stand to honor, Judge Matthew J. Perry, Jr.
General Horry and Judge Perry are both men who spent their lives in public service defending the rights and liberties of the Constitution we hold dear. And yet they helped shape different times and places in our history.
These two men with common goals and divergent backgrounds represent the diversity that we celebrate today with these inductions into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. It is this diversity that makes our state and nation the envy of the world.
Maya Angelou speaks of that diversity as a multi-colored tapestry where every thread is of equal value. That message of equality was so longed for, and seemed so unattainable, back in 1921 when Matthew Perry was born in Columbia, South Carolina. His community was a segregated one, and his experiences were like so many of those that looked as he did.
Matthew Perry’s place in history was formed by those experiences. Matt, as I affectionately call him, was born just a few miles from the federal courthouse that now bears his name. He was raised by a grandfather after his father died when he was 12 years old and his mother left to find work in New York as a seamstress. Despite his challenging childhood, he was determined to make a better life for himself and worked odd jobs to put himself through South Carolina State College.
What may have been the defining moment in Matthew Perry's life came not long after he was drafted during World War II. After finishing his basic training in Alabama, he went to the train station to proudly return home as an American soldier. But he was turned away from the station's restaurant because of the color of his skin and forced to order food through a window.
As injurious as this experience was, it did not match the insult he felt as he watched foreign prisoners of war being served at the tables that he, an American soldier, was being denied a seat. Such injustice fueled the fire within this gentle man to return to South Carolina after the war and attend South Carolina State College's law school. A Law School that was established to avoid integrating the law school at the University of South Carolina to continue the separate, and I daresay, unequal society in which he was born.
Upon graduation, Matt passed the State's newly implemented bar exam, which was adopted, in part, to impede blacks’ membership in the South Carolina Bar, and further the institutionalization of the insults he experienced in that train station.
Matthew started his legal career practicing law in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he took cases based on principle not on payment. He became well known for his commitment to fighting for justice regardless of the personal costs, and soon became the chief counsel of the South Carolina Conference of Branches of the NAACP. It was in Spartanburg that our lives intersected for the third time. I was doing my Directed Teaching at Carver High School and I occasionally visited Matt’s office.
The first time our lives intersected was in the Sumter County courthouse, although he did not realize it at the time. Matt was defending local NAACP members who had been sued by a local attorney. My mother, a NAACP activist, sat in on that trial. At one point during the trial, she closed her beauty shop and took me to the courthouse with her so that, in her words, “I could see what I could be when I grew up.”
Although Matthew lost that case he won the hearts and minds of everybody who witnessed his performance in that courtroom, and that day’s lesson made possible by my mother was one I took to heart.
The second time our lives intersected was in the Orangeburg County courthouse. I had been one of 388 South Carolina State and Claflin College students who had been arrested for attempting to integrate downtown Orangeburg establishments. Matthew and Rev. I. DeQuincey Newman chose me as, he would later say, his “star” witness in the trial of Fields vs. South Carolina. My status as his star witness was not a reflection of anything on my part. It was recognition that my father, a minister, and my mother, a beautician, were relatively insulated from the reprisals that were often visited upon the families of student protestors and demonstrators by the power structure.
Despite having me as his star witness, Matthew lost that case, as he did all of those cases at the magistrate level. Yet, with one exception, all were overturned on appeal. His perseverance was unmatched, and his dedication undaunted.
Judge Perry argued many notable cases. He served as lead attorney in the successful litigation to integrate Clemson University in 1963. In 1972, he won a tough reapportionment case, which resulted in the creation of single-member legislative districts in South Carolina.
He had a hand in almost every case that integrated South Carolina's public schools, hospitals, golf courses, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, and beaches. He individually tried over 6,000 cases, and his work led to the release of some 7,000 people arrested for protesting various forms of segregation.
Judge Perry went on to become the first black lawyer from the Deep South to be appointed to a federal bench, when in 1976, President Gerald Ford appointed him to the United States Military Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
After three years of service, President Jimmy Carter tapped Matthew to break another barrier. In 1979, he returned home to become United States District Judge for South Carolina, where he continues to serve today on senior status.
Throughout the death threats and lean times that marked his early career, to today's achievements and accolades, Matthew's devoted wife Hallie has remained steadfastly by his side. The couple has one son, Michael, a banker in Charlotte, N.C.
During his esteemed career, Matthew has received a multitude of honors including the prestigious Order of the Palmetto, South Carolinian of the Year, and the William R. Ming Advocacy Award by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
When I arrived in Congress, the first piece of legislation I introduced was to name the federal courthouse planned for Columbia in his honor. In 2004, we dedicated the Matthew J. Perry, Jr. United States Courthouse, in the shadow of his birthplace that was once cloaked in the scourge of segregation.
This new era in South Carolina was brought about in large measure by the dogged determination of Matthew Perry and his unbending faith that justice will prevail. His vision and veracity led him to challenge the Jim Crow laws of his time, and succeeded in providing faith and hope to an entire generation of South Carolinians.
Matthew Perry lived the inspirational words given to us by Maya Angelou. Her beautiful imagery of a tapestry of equal threads is a reminder of the Constitution’s connecting thread that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Whether arguing before the court or adjudicating from the bench, Matthew Perry weaves the common thread of equality. Not a bad legacy for a young black boy, whose value early in life was seen as less than. Today he is one of the shining threads that have created the rich fabric of this state, and it is my honor to present to you Judge Matthew J. Perry, Jr.
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