Ernest Adolphus Finney, Junior. was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice appointed to the South Carolina Supreme Court since the Reconstruction Era.
Background
Finney was born in Smithfield, Virginia. His mother died when he was ten days old, so he was raised by his father, Doctor Ernest A. Finney, Senior Finney earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claflin College in 1952.
In the beginning, he was unable to find work as a lawyer, so he followed in his father"s footsteps and worked as a teacher.
Education
He then enrolled in South Carolina State College"s School of Law, from which he graduated in 1954.
Career
He currently resides in Sumter, South Carolina. In 1960, he moved to Sumter and began a full-time law practice. In 1963, he served as chairman of the South Carolina Commission on Civil Rights.
Finney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1972.
Finney was one of the founders of the Legislative Black Caucus and served as charter Chairperson from 1973 to 1975. Trial Lawyers Association, 1993.
Elected and qualified Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit, 1976. And elected and qualified Associate Justice, 1985.
In May 1994, the state"s general assembly elected Ernest Finney to the position of Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, effective December 1994, making him the first African-American Chief Justice of South Carolina since Reconstruction.
He has been on the state Supreme Court since 1985. Finney retired from the state Supreme Court in 2000 and was named interim president of South Carolina State University in 2002. Finney"s daughter, Nikky Finney, is an award-winning poet and professor at the University of South Carolina.
Membership
He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was subsequently appointed a member of the House Judiciary Committee, making him the first African-American to serve on that key committee in modern times. In 2015, Finney represented the surviving eight members of the Friendship Nine at the court hearing where their convictions were overturned.