COLUMBIA (WACH) -- WACH Fox is celebrating Black History Month with a look at some African-Americans across the Midlands who’ve made major contributions to our area.
We begin our first installment of our series with a man who made history in the South Carolina Supreme Court.
For Ernest Finney Jr the idea of making history is something he still tries to understand everyday.
"I didn’t have any idea that the people of this state would have been as kind and considerate to me or afforded me the opportunity," Finney says.
That opportunity would land him in the history books of the Palmetto State. In 1994 he became the first African American Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court.
"I had lots of people who questioned my ability to do something because nobody that looked like me had ever done it before."
Chief Finney says his love for the judicial system was inspired by his father. After his dad couldn’t become a lawyer, they left Washington D.C for South Carolina.
Chief Finney went on to graduate from SC State University School of Law in 1954. After that he moved to Sumter to start practicing law.
Finney remembers being part of the civil rights movement, representing The Friendship Nine. They were a group of African American men who participated in a sit-in in Rock Hill. The racially charged town made national headlines.
Cases like these kept coming and soon Chief Finney found himself entrenched in the judicial system eventually becoming a circuit court judge. He recalls another case he was apart of.
"A case called the State of South Carolina versus Abbeville. That was a case which challenged the adequacy of the education system."
Chief Finney says he hoped for a different outcome.
"The verbiage used was not as forceful as I would have liked it to have been. But I didn’t think I would have been able to get two of my colleagues to agree with me to make it the law of the state."
The day of our interview Chief Finney went back to the supreme court visiting where he presided over cases for years as Chief Justice.
One of his past colleagues says he’s one of a kind.
"To sit with one of my dearest friends and have him be the man who made the difference, it’s just like a dream come true," says Chief Justice Jean Toal.
Chief Finney was also one of the founding members of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. He served as Chief Justice from 1994 until he retired in 2000.
It’s a seat no other African American has filled since.
His portrait now hangs inside the supreme court lobby, as a reminder to all of a local man who’s now in the history books.
For more on Black History Month, visit our page brought to you by Chick-Fil-A in Five Points.
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