The Racist History Behind South Carolina's Bar Exam

Matthew Perry was a successful civil rights attorney who became the first African-American from the Deep South appointed to the federal judiciary and the first African American to serve as a U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina. As an attorney he triumphed in several landmark cases. Perry joined law school in 1951. Prior to this, South Carolina did not require students to pass the bar to practice law until Black Americans started graduating from law schools.