[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9607-9609]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    J. WATIES WARING JUDICIAL CENTER

  Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2131) to designate the Federal building and United States 
courthouse located at 83 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, 
as the ``J. Waties Waring Judicial Center''.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2131

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. J. WATIES WARING FEDERAL BUILDING AND UNITED 
                   STATES COURTHOUSE.

       (a) Designation.--The Federal building and United States 
     courthouse located at 83 Meeting Street in Charleston, South 
     Carolina, shall be known and designated as the ``J. Waties 
     Waring Judicial Center''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     Federal building and United States courthouse referred to in 
     subsection (a) shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``J. 
     Waties Waring Judicial Center''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Arkansas (Mr. Crawford) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie 
Bernice Johnson) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H.R. 2131.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arkansas?

[[Page 9608]]

  There was no objection.
  Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2131 designates the Federal building and the United 
States courthouse located at 83 Meeting Street in Charleston, South 
Carolina, as the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center.
  Judge Waring was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1880. After 
becoming a lawyer, he was in the private practice of law and eventually 
served as corporation counsel for Charleston, South Carolina.
  In 1942, after serving as assistant U.S. Attorney, Judge Waring was 
appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to serve as a judge 
for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South 
Carolina.
  During his tenure on the bench, Judge Waring's opinions had a 
significant impact on civil rights. For example, in the case of Duvall 
v. School Board, he ruled that equal pay must be guaranteed for equally 
qualified schoolteachers, regardless of race, and his dissent in Briggs 
v. Elliott stating that ``separate educational facilities are 
inherently unequal'' formed the legal foundation for the Supreme 
Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
  This bill is supported by the entire South Carolina delegation. Given 
Judge Waring's dedication to the law, it is fitting to name this 
Federal building and courthouse after him.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation. This bill is, of 
course, to name the U.S. courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, 
after Judge Julius Waties Waring.
  During Judge Waring's time as a Federal judge in the Eastern District 
of South Carolina, he was a trailblazer in pursuit of justice for 
African Americans. Judge Waring consistently ruled for African American 
plaintiffs in cases involving voting rights, unequal pay, and civil 
rights.
  Before Judge Waring was named to the Federal bench, he served as 
assistant U.S. attorney and as corporation counsel for the City of 
Charleston.
  He is most famously remembered for a 1951 landmark school segregation 
case. Judge Waring wrote in his dissent on a three-judge panel that 
racial segregation in public schools was ``per se inequality.'' He 
became the first Federal judge to take that position since Plessy v. 
Ferguson ruled for separate but equal. In his dissent, he went further 
to denounce segregation as an ``evil that must be eradicated.'' His 
dissent is commonly understood to provide the intellectual underpinning 
of the Supreme Court outlawing school segregation in Brown v. Board of 
Education.
  Because Judge Waring's decisions were considered controversial at the 
time, he endured threats of violence and was alienated from most of 
Charleston. Soon after Judge Waring's momentous decision, he retired 
from the Federal bench and moved to New York, where he later died.
  Fifty years after his death, this legislation naming the Federal 
courthouse in Charleston in his honor is appropriate because of Judge 
Waring's courageous judicial service in the face of fierce opposition 
to the bedrock American value of ``justice for all.''
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, again, I would just urge my colleagues to 
support H.R. 2131.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2131, a 
bill to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse 
located at 83 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, as the ``J. 
Waties Waring Judicial Center'' and urge my colleagues to support this 
bill. I thank Representative Jim Clyburn for introducing the bill, 
which has the full support of our state's congressional delegation.
  This bill is a reflection of two things: human kindness and bold 
leadership. There is a saying that, ``One of the most difficult things 
to give away is kindness; it usually comes back to you.'' This bill is, 
in some ways, a reflection of that notion. Under the category of human 
kindness, this bill came as a result of a phone call from Senator Fritz 
Hollings asking that the name on the courthouse in Charleston named 
after him be changed to honor the memory of the late Judge Julius 
Waties Waring. Although Judge Waring has a remarkable legal legacy, in 
the case of Senator Hollings, it all began with human kindness. In the 
1940's, Fritz Hollings was a young attorney in Charleston and practiced 
in front of Judge Waring. What impressed him was that Judge Waring was, 
``damned nice to me. He made sure young lawyers weren't bumfuzzled or 
run over by senior lawyers.'' If the story stopped there, we probably 
would not be discussing this bill today.
  Instead, it is Judge Waring's bold leadership that makes this 
commemoration particularly fitting. As a federal district court judge, 
J. Waties Waring ruled on several key cases that set the stage for one 
of the most significant court cases in our nation's history. In the 
1940's, Judge Waring heard and ruled on cases that opened South 
Carolina's ``white only'' Democratic primary and forcing equal pay for 
black and white school teachers. By 1948, TIME Magazine declared him as 
``The Man They Love to Hate'' in South Carolina. In fact, in 1950, the 
South Carolina House of Representatives debated a resolution asking 
Judge Waring and his wife to leave the state and even offered to pay 
for the one-way tickets. This all came before his dissenting vote in 
the 1951 Briggs v. Elliott case involving segregated busing in 
Clarendon County in South Carolina. In that case, Thurgood Marshall 
argued that black students were being treated unfairly because although 
there were three times as many black students, funding for 
transportation was only half. As a result, black students were walking 
up to nine miles to school. The case was decided against the plaintiff 
by a 2-1 vote, with Judge Waring voting in dissent. In his opinion, 
Waring argued that segregation was ``an evil that must be eradicated'' 
and a result of ``unreasonable, unscientific and . . . unadulterated 
prejudice.'' His dissent would travel with the case all the way to the 
Supreme Court, where the Briggs case became one of five cases decided 
with Brown v. Board of Education, which recognized segregation as a 
violation of the 14th Amendment.
  Although Judge Waring left the bench not long after the Briggs case, 
the impact of his leadership still resides today. I think naming this 
building after Judge Waring is a particularly fitting commemoration of 
his bold leadership, his willingness to take a stand, and the human 
kindness that's being extended by Senator Hollings back to Judge 
Waring.
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2131, a bill to 
rename the federal courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina in honor of 
Judge J. Waties Waring. This bill is a tribute to two men, two 
outstanding South Carolinians. The first, Judge Waring, for whom the 
bill will name the courthouse, was a federal judge in South Carolina 
during the 1940s and 50s who made landmark and courageous rulings on 
civil rights.
  The second is known to many in the Congress, Senator Ernest F. 
``Fritz'' Hollings whose name is currently on this courthouse, and who 
has requested it be changed as a long overdue honor to Judge Waring.
  The son of a confederate soldier, Julius Waties Waring, was born July 
27, 1880 in Charleston, and graduated from the College of Charleston in 
1900. He became an attorney and after practicing in Charleston for 
several decades was nominated by President Franklin Roosevelt to the 
U.S. District Court in 1941.
  While there was little in his background that foretold an evolution 
on the issue, soon after ascending to the bench, Waring would become an 
iconoclast and an outcast in his hometown because of his rulings on 
civil rights cases.
  In the 1944 Duvall v. School Board decision, Judge Waring ordered 
equal pay for teachers, regardless of race.
  In 1947, in Elmore v. Rice, Judge Waring struck down South Carolina's 
all-white Democratic primary.
  In 1952, in his most famous opinion, Judge Waring dissented from the 
ruling in Briggs v. Elliott, arguing that ``separate but equal'' was 
unconstitutional. While a dissenting opinion at the time, on appeal to 
the U.S. Supreme Court, his opinion would form the basis of the 
unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down 
racial segregation in all public schools in America.
  For my entire tenure in Congress, these words from Judge Waring's 
dissent have been on the wall of my Congressional Office: ``They showed 
beyond a doubt that the evils of segregation and color prejudice come 
from early training . . . and that is an evil that must be 
eradicated.''

[[Page 9609]]

  Taking these stands in the 1940s and 50s was not without consequence. 
His experiences gave currency to the biblical admonition that ``a 
prophet is not without honor save in his own homeland.'' Waring was 
ostracized in Charleston and endured harassment and attacks on his 
home. He retired from the bench in 1952, left his hometown and moved to 
New York.
  He had made his mark, however, and his legacy endures. I recall 
attending his graveside services in 1968, which was sparsely attended 
except for several of Charleston's African American community and a few 
whites who stood off at a distance.
  Thankfully, history has given Judge Waring the favorable recognition 
denied to him during his life, and passage of his bill will rightfully 
add to this acclaim.
  It is often stated that ``the difference between a moment and a 
movement is sacrifice.'' Judge Waring's sacrifices put him at the 
forefront of a movement. His courage in standing up for what was right, 
will endure in our nation's memory as a powerful example of 
statesmanship that must continually be sought, regardless of the issues 
of the day.
  Of course, none of this today would be possible were it not for 
Senator Ernest Frederick Hollings. Fritz Hollings' record is familiar 
to all of us here.
  Throughout his career, as Governor of South Carolina when Clemson 
University was integrated and in the United States Senate, when Fritz 
saw a problem he set about to solve it. When the plight of the poor was 
exposed to him in the late 1960s, he authored the book, The Case 
Against Hunger.
  He led hunger tours to highlight the problem, and ultimately 
championed the successful Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for 
Women, Infants and Children or WIC. As Chairman of the Senate Commerce 
Committee, he helped usher in a generation of landmark social policy, 
providing aid of the needy and protecting our environment.
  He was never afraid to make difficult choices, or to change positions 
when he thought it warranted.
  In the 1980s, Fritz helped secure funding to build the annex to the 
Courthouse that is the subject of this legislation, and the entire 
facility was subsequently named in his honor.
  Never content to allow past injustices to go unaddressed, however, he 
has publicly called on Congress to replace his name on the building, 
with that of the highly deserving, long unheralded, J. Waties Waring. 
This selfless act of statesmanship is just the most recent example of 
Fritz's visionary leadership.
  I thank my colleagues in the South Carolina delegation for their 
unanimous support of this bill. I urge its passage by the House to 
honor this outstanding South Carolinian and great American.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Crawford) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 2131.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________