Bill would rename part of Charleston’s federal court complex

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s two U.S. senators have introduced legislation to rename part of the federal court complex in Charleston in honor of the late J. Waties Waring, who played a key role in desegregating the nation’s public schools.

U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott introduced the bill to rename the Hollings Judicial Center in honor of Waring after receiving a request from Ernest “Fritz” Hollings himself. Hollings served as a U.S. senator from South Carolina from 1966 until 2005.

Waring’s 1951 dissent in a Clarendon County, South Carolina desegregation case was the first time a federal judge wrote an opinion challenging the doctrine of separate but equal.

His reasoning was largely followed by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education outlawing segregated schools.