There’s a new addition in the AMHS History Lounge. Low-country artist Jonathan Green generously donated a copy of his painting, “Breath of Freedom,” to every public high school in the Charleston County school district. Green grew up in Garden’s Corner, South Carolina, who graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1982. In addition, he has received honorary doctor of art degree from both University of South Carolina and Coastal Carolina University. His art has garnered many awards and acknowledgements from around the world.

Green’s painting depicts a crowd of people outside the Charleston federal courthouse listening to the trial Briggs vs. Elliot. Judge Waring, whose statute was released the same day as this painting, was the residential district court judge at the time of the case. From 1942 to 1952 Waring served the Charleston area, but his most well-known case was Briggs vs. Elliot, where he famously said, “segregation in education can never produce equality and that it is an evil that must be eradicated….Segregation is per se inequality.” This later became the basis of the Brown vs. Board of Education argument.

Following Judge Waring’s ruling, NAACP leader A. J. Clement, Jr. stated “Americans will thank God for you in the future and at some later date, the South will raise a monument to you.” On April 11, 2014, a statue honoring Judge Waring was placed in Charleston, South Carolina. On the same day as the statue dedication ceremony, Green’s painting was presented at the Hollings Judicial Center Garden.