A statue sits inside the gates of the courthouse, honoring civil rights pioneer and South Carolina's first African-American United States District Judge, Matthew. J. Perry Jr.  It reads: "The Honorable Matthew J. Perry, Jr." While I breathe I Hope.  "Our state's motto and our nation's promise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are reflected in the life experiences and work of Judge Matthew J. Perry Jr."-James J. Clyburn, United States Congressman. Artist Maria J. Kirby-Smith captured Judge Matthew J. Perry in this monument. The statue is a slightly smaller than life-size bronze statue atop a marble base depicting Judge Perry, wearing his judge robe, seated and surrounded by three children. The young girl represents the children killed in Alabama church fires a number of years ago. The young African-American is Harvey Gantt, the first African-American admitted to Clemson University and later Charlotte mayor. The third child, a boy, represents the all-American boy. He dons overalls and even has a lizard climbing out of one of his pockets (a signature of the artist). These children all represent Judge Perry's adoration of kids. Built in 2003, this courthouse honors one of South Carolina’s most prominent civil rights attorneys. Born in Columbia in 1921, Perry graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and served during World War II before attending college and law school at the segregated South Carolina State College. He later served as chief counsel for the SC NAACP, where he argued several landmark cases, including those that desegregated Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, Flemming v. SCE&G, which desegregated Columbia’s buses, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court case Edwards v. South Carolina, which afforded civil rights protestors broad legal protections. Perry was the first African American lawyer from the Deep South appointed to the federal bench and later the state’s first African American to sit on the US District Court.