The Judge John H. Ruffin Court House will also be named the Augusta Judicial Center after city leaders struck a compromise.

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A Waynesboro native, Judge Ruffin started his law career as an Augusta civil rights attorney, filing the lawsuits that desegregated school systems in Richmond and Burke counties. He was an Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court judge until 1994, when Gov. Zell Miller appointed him to the appeals court. He served as the court’s chief judge in 2005 and 2006.

He was the first black member of the Augusta Bar Association, the first black Augusta Superior Court judge, the first black Court of Appeals chief judge and, in 2008, he became the first black attorney to have his portrait hung in Waynesboro courthouse.

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