List of first minority male lawyers and judges in West Virginia
This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in West Virginia. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are men who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.
Firsts in West Virginia's history[edit]
Lawyers[edit]
- First African American male: John H. Hill (1881)[1]
- First African American male (actively practice): J.R. Clifford (1887)[2]
State judges[edit]
- First African American male: Leon P. Miller (1968)[3][4][5][6]
- First African American male (Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia): Franklin Cleckley (1969)[7][8]
Firsts in local history[edit]
- Herman Canady:[9] First African American male to serve as a Judge of the Kanawha Circuit Court (1982)
- James Knox Smith:[10][11] First African American male lawyer in McDowell County, West Virginia (c. 1880s)
- Charles E. Price:[12] First African American male to graduate from the West Virginia University College of Law (1949)
- Franklin Cleckley:[7][8] First African American male to serve as a law professor at the West Virginia University College of Law (1969)
- Donald L. Pitts:[13] First African American male to serve as the President of the Raleigh County Bar Association, West Virginia (1996)
See also[edit]
Other topics of interest[edit]
- List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
- List of first women lawyers and judges in West Virginia
References[edit]
- ^ Hill became the first African American to be admitted to the bar of the Jefferson County Circuit Court, thus becoming West Virginia's first African-American male lawyer.
- ^ "HR 22 Text". www.legis.state.wv.us. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
- ^ "The SPHINX | Summer 1980 | Volume 66 | Number 2 198006602". Issuu. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
- ^ Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 1973-01-11.
- ^ Romero, Patricia W. (1969). In Black America, 1968: The Year of Awakening. Publishers Company.
- ^ "Leon P. Miller". www.wvculture.org. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
- ^ a b EDITOR, Matt Harvey MANAGING. "Former W.Va. Supreme Court justice Frank Cleckley dies at age 77". WV News. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
- ^ a b "Franklin Cleckley receives 2011 Liberty Bell Award" (PDF) (Press release). West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. March 8, 2011.
- ^ Bott, Rachelle (10 January 2002). "Canady leaving bench in April: ; County's first black judge announces his retirement". The Charleston Gazette. p. 1C. ProQuest 331053779.
- ^ Trotter, Joe William; Trotter, Professor of History Joe William Jr. (1990). Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915-32. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06119-6.
- ^ Smith, J. Clay Jr. (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1685-1.
- ^ "History | College of Law | West Virginia University". www.law.wvu.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
- ^ "Bishop Donald L. Pitts « Altmeyer Obituary Archive". obituaryarchive.altmeyer.com. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
Bibliography[edit]
- Smith, J. Clay Jr. (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1685-1. OCLC 491962363. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
- Woodson, Carter G., ed. (January 1937). "Notes". The Journal of Negro History. 22 (1). Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History: 116–140. doi:10.1086/JNHv22n1p116. JSTOR 2714327. S2CID 224835338.