South Carolina lost a legendary figure with the recent death of U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry. He played a major role in the civil rights movement in the state, serving for a time as counsel for the state NAACP, and ultimately became South Carolina’s first African-American federal judge. The federal courthouse in Columbia is named in his honor. Read more about his life here.
USC’s Moving Image Research Collections is currently featuring a video of Judge Perry in a 1980 interview, part of the series Quest for Human / Civil Rights–Oral Recollections of Black South Carolinians, produced by the University of South Carolina. Watch it here.