Where late SC Chief Justice Finney will be honored before funeral

Former S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ernest Finney, the first African-American chosen to lead the state’s highest court, will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The body of Finney, who passed away Sunday at the age of 86, will lie in the rotunda of the Supreme Court building on Columbia’s Gervais Street for the public to pay respects from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Finney was on the court from 1985 to 2000 and was its chief justice from 1994 until his retirement.

Palmer Memorial Chapel in Columbia will host visitors later Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m.

Another public visitation will be held in the Neal Jones Auditorium on the campus of Morris College in Sumter from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday. Finney operated his law practice from Sumter for years, defending civil rights activists at the height of the 1960s fight for integration. Later, he was a legislator from Sumter before he was appointed to the bench.

Finney’s funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in the James and Dorothy Z. Elmore Chapel on the campus of Claflin University.

Finney was a 1952 graduate of Claflin and later was the board of trustees of the historically black university.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 7:45 AM with the headline "Where late SC Chief Justice Finney will be honored before funeral."