College:
Philander Smith College, B.A., 1945; Atlanta University, Graduate Studies in
Economics, 1946.
Memberships:
State Bar of Texas; Supreme Court of the United States; United States Court of
Appeals Fifth and Eighth Circuits; Life Member, National Bar Association; Texas
Bar Foundation Fellow; College of the State Bar of Texas; and Tarrant County
and Ft. Worth/Tarrant County Black Bar Associations.
Biography:
Senior District Judge, Tarrant County, 1994 - 2003; District Judge, 1989 -
1996; General Counsel, Johnson, Vaughn & Heiskell, 1989 - present; Judge,
Criminal District No. 2, 1983 - 1988; General Practitioner of Law, 1953 - 1983,
2003 - present; Military Service 1954-1955; Assistant Professor of Business,
Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas, 1952-1954; General Practioner of Law, Arkansas,
1949-1952; worked with the late Justice Thurgood Marshall on the landmark case,
"Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas." Successfully
litigated the case to integrate the Mansfield Independent School District in
Mansfield, Tarrant County, Texas; filed the federal lawsuit to integrate the
Fort Worth Independent School District; opened the first African American law
office in Texas; organized the Fort Worth Black Bar Association.
Honors and
Recognitions: Silver Gavel Award, Tarrant County Bar Association, 1997; KRLD
Radio Appreciation for Community Service Award, 1996; Marion Brooks' Living
Legend Award, 1995; Outstanding Achiever Award of Philander Smith University
Alumni Association, 1994; "Living Legend in the Law" presented by the
Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters, 1994; 2007 Inducted into the Arkansas
Black Hall of Fame. Named a "Legal Legend" from Eclipse Magazine in
2007.
