Chatham County officials honored the legacy of Judge Eugene H. Gadsden on Wednesday by unveiling a portrait at the courthouse named in his honor.

The portrait will be permanently displayed in the lobby of the Eugene H. Gadsden Courthouse, located at 400 W. Oglethorpe Ave. The courthouse, which opened in 2025, houses the State and Chatham County Superior Court.

 

Gadsden, who died in 2000, was the first African American Superior Court Judge for Chatham County Superior Court and the first Black member of the Savannah Bar Association.

“Today as we unveil the portrait of Judge Gadsden, I couldn’t be any prouder than I am at this time,” said Chatham County Chairman Chester A. Ellis.

A pioneering leader in Savannah’s Civil Rights movement, Gadsden also served on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s political action council during the 1960s and 1970s.

“Equal justice under the law. That is the primary aspect of why everyone walks into this particular building, so that he or she, or whomever, can be treated fairly, and Judge Eugene H. Gadsden was the epitome of what that is all about,” said the Honorable John H. Morse, Jr., Chief Judge, Superior Court of the Eastern Judicial Circuit, Chatham County. “On behalf of the judiciary, he has set a bar that is so high that all of us have to work very hard every day to come even close to touching the hem of where he has left his legacy.”

Recalling the opening of the Eugene H. Gadsden Courthouse in 2025, Morse said the building, along with Gadsden's legacy, will continue to serve as a symbol of equal justice for generations to come. 

Speaking on behalf of the Gadsden family, his daughter, Dr. Greer Gadsden Larned, extended thanks to the Chatham County Commission, other local and state officials, and everyone in attendance for honoring her father.  

“All of you here, I see you, I appreciate you, I love you, and I thank you,” she said.

A Savannah native, Gadsden was appointed to Superior Court in 1979 by then Georgia Governor George Busbee and served in that role until his retirement in 1992.