Four Corners of Law - Church, City, County, Nation

A stop on Charleston Historic District Walk, a free self-guided tour.

From the City Hall side of Broad and Meeting Streets, turn slowly around. Each corner of this intersection holds a different kind of authority. St. Michael's, on the southeast corner, stands for the law of the church. Charleston City Hall, the Adam-style building beside you, completed in 1804, speaks for the city. Across Meeting Street, the Charleston County Courthouse began in 1753 as the colony's statehouse and was rebuilt as a courthouse in 1792. On the southwest corner, the 1896 federal courthouse and post office represents the nation. Robert Ripley of Believe It or Not coined the nickname in the 1930s.

That federal courthouse holds an important civil rights story. In May 1951 a three-judge panel heard Briggs v. Elliott there, a challenge to school segregation brought by Black parents in rural Clarendon County. The panel ruled against them two to one, but Judge J. Waties Waring wrote a forceful dissent arguing that segregation was unequal by its very nature. The case went on to the Supreme Court as part of Brown v. Board of Education.

Getting here: Cross Broad Street to the north side and stand near the steps of City Hall, where you can see all four corners.

Did you know?: Waring, a Charleston native, was shunned by much of white Charleston for his civil rights rulings and moved to New York after retiring. Today the federal court complex on Meeting Street is named the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center.

Photo op: From the City Hall corner, frame St. Michael's steeple diagonally across the intersection with a courthouse on either side.

More on Wikipedia: Four Corners of Law · Briggs v. Elliott · Julius Waties Waring · Charleston County Courthouse

Four Corners of Law - Church, City, County, Nation

Stops on this tour