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"F" is for Figg, Robert McCormick, Jr. [1901-1991]

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"F" is for Figg, Robert McCormick, Jr. [1901-1991]. Lawyer. Public Servant. Legal Educator. Figg grew up in Charleston and attended Columbia University Law School. In 1934, he was elected solicitor of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. He drafted legislation creating the State Ports Authority and, for thirty years, served as the agency's legal counsel. He served as an advisor to Governors Strom Thurmond and James F. Byrnes. Figg framed the state's legal defense of "separate but equal schools" in the case of Briggs v. Elliott. His opposition to desegregation likely cost him an appointment to the federal bench. From 1959 to 1970 he served as dean of the University of South Carolina Law School where he helped modernize the school's facilities. Robert McCormick Figg, Jr. was one of the most influential attorneys of his generation.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.