[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12777]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      TRIBUTE TO U.S. FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE MATTHEW J. PERRY, JR.

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                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, August 1, 2011

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a legendary 
American who has passed from this life into immortality. The Honorable 
Matthew J. Perry, Jr. was one of our great legal minds and a stalwart 
of the Civil Rights Movement. He was also my mentor and dear friend, 
and he leaves a void that cannot be filled.
  On Friday, July 29, 2011, Judge Matthew Perry went to work as he did 
every weekday in the Columbia, South Carolina courthouse that bears his 
name. That evening he slipped quietly away at home, which was so in 
keeping with how he lived his life. August 3, 2011 would have been his 
90th birthday.
  Matthew Perry was the eldest child of Matthew and Jennie Lyles Perry, 
a tailor and seamstress in the segregated Waverly community of 
Columbia, South Carolina. Following his father's death when Matthew was 
just 12, he moved in with his grandfather, William Lyles, a brakeman on 
the Southern Railroad. Matthew was expected to contribute financially 
to the family, and he did odd jobs like painting, digging ditches and 
delivering newspapers to do his part. That led young Matthew to aspire 
to a better life.
  He attended Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia and went on 
to South Carolina State College (now University) in Orangeburg from 
1939 to 1941, until World War II broke out. Matthew was drafted and 
served as an Army Sergeant in an all-black Quartermaster Corps in 
England, France, Belgium and Germany.
  When Matthew returned home on a furlough from the war, where he 
enjoyed more freedoms in Europe than he did in the Jim Crow South, he 
stopped to eat at a restaurant where he was forced to order through a 
window while he saw Italian prisoners of war eating inside with the 
white customers. This inequity stirred a passion in Matthew Perry that 
shaped his entire life.
  He returned to South Carolina State College in 1946 and finished his 
degree in Business Administration, but he remained passionate about 
civil rights. He watched Thurgood Marshall argue a case in Columbia 
that led to the establishment of a law school at S.C. State to avoid 
the integration of the University of South Carolina's School of Law. 
That experience had a profound influence on Matthew's future. He 
determined he wanted to follow in the footsteps of future Supreme Court 
Justice Marshall and enrolled in the second class of S.C. State's law 
school in 1948. He was one of just five men to graduate in 1951.
  Following graduation, Attorney Perry moved to Spartanburg, South 
Carolina where he was the only black lawyer. He made a name for himself 
representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People (NAACP), although he couldn't win a case. During that period, my 
mother took me--a teenager at the time--to see him represent the Sumter 
NAACP, so, in her words, I could see what I could be. He electrified 
everyone in the courtroom, and I was mesmerized.
  A few years later, as fate would have it, I was arrested along with 
387 other students in March 1960 during the first civil rights protest 
march and sit-in in Orangeburg. I was a student at South Carolina State 
College at the time. Attorney Perry chose me as his star witness 
because my parents, a minister and beautician, were immune from 
economic retribution from the white establishment since they didn't 
serve any white clients. That case launched what would be a lifelong 
friendship.
  In 1961, Attorney Perry moved home to Columbia to join his childhood 
friend, Lincoln Jenkins, in opening a law firm. He was the attorney on 
three cases that have left a significant mark on South Carolina--the 
cases that resulted in the integration of Clemson University and the 
University of South Carolina and the 1972 lawsuit that created single-
member districts for State House elections, which resulted in 
quadrupling the number of African Americans in the South Carolina 
Legislature.
  Matthew Perry was a beloved figure and was even drafted in 1974 to 
run for Congress. However, the climate wasn't yet right for an African 
American to be elected from South Carolina.
  In 1976, Senator Strom Thurmond nominated him to serve on the U.S. 
Military Court of Appeals. He was unanimously confirmed and became the 
second black to serve on that judicial panel. Just three years later, 
Senator Ernest Hollings tapped him as a U.S. District Judge for the 
state of South Carolina, which brought him back to Columbia. He was the 
first African American to serve in that capacity. He moved into senior 
status on the federal bench in 1995 and remained active until the end 
of his life.
  In 2004, I had the honor of being with Judge Perry for the dedication 
of the Matthew J. Perry, Jr. Federal Courthouse in Columbia. I 
sponsored the legislation that named the building in his honor, and it 
was among my proudest moments in public life. It took ten years from 
the passage of the law until the edifice was complete, but it was well 
worth the wait, and I am so pleased that Judge Perry had the 
opportunity to work in the courthouse for a number of years. On a 
personal note, he swore in my daughter, Mignon Clyburn, as a member of 
the Federal Communications Commission in the Perry Courthouse, and it 
reminded me of when he presided over my ceremonial swearing-in when I 
became the first African American elected to Congress from South 
Carolina since the 19th century.
  Because of his tremendous stature in the legal community, Judge Perry 
earned a number of honors and awards. Among them was South Carolina's 
highest civilian honor, the Order of the Palmetto, in 1986, and he was 
inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2007. He earned the 
distinguished alumnus award from South Carolina State University in 
1972 and 1980, and he was selected the South Carolinian of the Year in 
1977. He received the William R. Ming Advocacy Award, which recognizes 
outstanding success as a lawyer representing causes important to the 
NAACP. He also held honorary doctorates from Princeton University, 
South Carolina State College, the University of South Carolina, 
Voorhees College, Francis Marion University and Lander College.
  He was a lifelong member of Zion Baptist Church in Columbia and was 
married to the former Hallie Bacote of Timmonsville for 63 years. They 
had one son, Michael.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to rise today to honor the 
contributions of this national treasure. Matthew J. Perry, Jr. was a 
humble man who would never seek out recognition for his extraordinary 
contributions to civil rights and the legal profession; he just saw it 
as his life's work. He has left an indelible mark on this country, and 
his legacy lives on in so many, including myself, who have benefited 
from his passion and his persuasion. Judge Perry was a gentle giant, 
whose likes we will never see again.

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