Julius Waties Waring

Julius Waties Waring (July 27, 1880 – January 11, 1968) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina who played an important role in the early legal battles of the American Civil Rights Movement . His dissent in _Briggs v. Elliott _ was foundational to _Brown v. Board of Education _.

Contents

• 1 Biography

  • 1.1 Early life and education

  • 1.2 Career

    • 1.2.1 Federal judicial service

    • 1.2.2 Judicial philosophy and move to New York

    • 1.2.3 Isaac Woodard case

    • 1.2.4 Further race-based cases

    • 1.2.5 Briggs v. Elliott

  • 1.3 Later life and death

• 2 Legacy

• 3 Further reading

• 4 References

• 5 Sources

• 6 External links

Biography

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Biography")

Early life and education

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Early life and education")

Judge Waring lived at 61 Meeting Street from 1915 until being driven out of Charleston.

Waring was born in Charleston , South Carolina , to Edward Perry Waring and Anna Thomasine Waties. He graduated second in his class with an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the College of Charleston in 1900. Waring read law in 1901 and passed the South Carolina bar exam in 1902. He married his first wife, Annie Gammel, in 1913. Their only daughter was Anne Waring Warren, who died without children. The couple moved into a house at 61 Meeting St. in 1915.

Career

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Career")

He was in private practice of law in Charleston from 1902 to 1942 and an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of South Carolina from 1914 to 1921. He served as the city attorney for Charleston from 1933 to 1942, under Mayor Burnet R. Maybank. In 1938, he served as the campaign manager for Democratic Senator Ellison D. "Cotton Ed" Smith . Waring founded a law firm with D. A. Brockington.

Federal judicial service

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: Federal judicial service")

Waring was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 18, 1941, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina vacated by Judge Francis Kerschner Myers . He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 20, 1942, and received his commission on January 23, 1942. He served as Chief Judge from 1948 to 1952. As Chief Judge, Waring ended segregated seating in the courtroom and chose a black bailiff, John Fleming, who quickly became known as "John the Bailiff."

Judicial philosophy and move to New York

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=5 "Edit section: Judicial philosophy and move to New York")

Waring had been initially supported by the establishment of Charleston. After divorcing his first wife and marrying the Northern socialite Elizabeth Avery, Judge Waring quickly transitioned from a racial moderate to a proponent of radical change. Speaking at a Harlem church, he proclaimed: "The cancer of segregation will never be cured by the sedative of gradualism." Political, editorial, and social leaders in South Carolina criticized and shunned Judge Waring and his wife to the point where, in 1952, when he assumed senior status , they left Charleston altogether and moved to New York City.

Isaac Woodard case

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Waties_Waring&action=edit&section=6 "Edit section: Isaac Woodard case")

In 1946, Chief of Police Linwood Shull of Batesburg, South Carolina , and several other officers beat and blinded Isaac Woodard , a black man on his way home after serving over three years in the army. After it became clear that the state authorities of South Carolina would take no action against Shull, President Harry S. Truman himself initiated a case, brought to the federal level on the grounds that the beating had occurred at a bus stop on federal property, and that at the time of the assault, Woodard was in uniform.

The case was presided over by Waring, but by all accounts the trial was a travesty. The local United States Attorney charged with handling the case failed to interview anyone except the bus driver, a decision that Waring believed was a gross dereliction of duty . The defense attorney's behavior was also contrary, at one point telling the jury that "if you rule against Shull, then let this South Carolina secede again", and he later shouted racial epithets at Woodard. The jury found Shull not guilty on all charges.

The failure to convict Shull was perceived as a political failure on the part of the Truman administration, and Waring would later write of his disgust of the way the case

…

Judge Waring lived at 61 Meeting Street from 1915 until being driven out of Charleston.

Waring was born in Charleston , South Carolina , to Edward Perry Waring and Anna Thomasine Waties. He graduated second in his class with an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the College of Charleston in 1900. Waring read law in 1901 and passed the South Carolina bar exam in 1902. He married his first wife, Annie Gammel, in 1913. Their only daughter was Anne Waring Warren, who died without children. The couple moved into a house at 61 Meeting St. in 1915.