List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Tennessee

This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Tennessee. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are other distinctions such as the first minority men in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in Tennessee's history

Fredrick McGhee: First African American male lawyer in Tennessee (1885)

Benjamin Hooks: First African American male judge in Tennessee since Reconstruction Era (1965)

Lawyers

• First African American male: Horatio Nelson Rankin (1868) ^[1]
• First African American male to argue a case before the Tennessee Supreme Court: William F. Yardley (1872) in 1883 ^[2]

State judges

• First Jewish American male (upon his brief appointment to the Supreme Court of Tennessee): Leopold Lehman in 1892 ^[3]
• First African American male (since Reconstruction): Benjamin Hooks (1948) in 1965 ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}
• First African American male (General Sessions Court): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1969 ^{[8] [9]}
• First African American male (city court): S.A. Wilbun in 1973 ^[10] (1973)
• First African American male (circuit court) S.A. Wilbun in 1978 ^[10] (1978)
• First African American male (criminal court): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1978 ^{[8] [9] [11]}
• First African American male (Tennessee Supreme Court): George H. Brown in 1980 ^{[12] [13]}
• First African American male (Chief Justice; Tennessee Supreme Court): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1994 ^{[8] [9]}
• First African American male (Tennessee Court of Appeals): Richard Dinkins in 2008 ^[14]
• First Hispanic American male (trial court judge): Hector Sanchez in 2022 ^[15]

Federal judges

• First African American male (U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee): Odell Horton (1956) in 1980 ^[16]
• First African American male (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee): Curtis L. Collier in 1995

• First African American male (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee): William Joseph Haynes Jr. (1973) in 1999 ^[17]
• First Greek American male (Judge and Chief Judge): United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee): Thomas A. Varlan in 2003 and 2012 respectively ^[18]
• First African American male from Tennessee (United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit): Andre Mathis in 2022 ^[19]

Assistant United States Attorney

• First African American male: Odell Horton (1956) ^[16]

Assistant District Attorney

• First African American males (since Reconstruction): Arthur T. Bennett and A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) respectively around 1965-1966 ^{[20] [10] [9]}

Public Defender

• First African American male: Benjamin Hooks (1948) ^[7]

Faculty

• First African American male law professor: Joseph H. Dismukes in 1883 ^[21]

Firsts in local history

• Prince Albert Ewing: ^{[22] [23] [24]} First African American male lawyer in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee
• A. A. Birch Jr. (1956): ^[8] First African American male to serve as a prosecutor and judge in Davidson County, Tennessee
• Martesha L. Johnson (2018) ^[25] First African American to serve as a Chief Public Defender for Metro Nashville, Davidson County and second woman.
• Rheubin Taylor: ^[26] First African American male to serve as the County Attorney for Hamilton County, Tennessee (1994)
• Gerald Webb: ^[27] First African American male judge in Hamilton County, Tennessee (2019)
• William Francis Yardley (1872): ^[28] First African American male lawyer in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
• Charles E. Bush: ^[29] First African American male judge in Montgomery County, Tennessee (1995)
• General Quarles Boyd: ^[30] First African American male lawyer in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee
• John McClellan Sr.: ^[31] First African American male to serve as the Justice of the Peace in Putnam County, Tennessee (1972)
• Thomas Frank Cassels: ^[10] First African American male to serve as the Attorney General Pro Tem of Shelby County Criminal Court (c. 1880s)
• Josiah T. Settle (1875): ^[10] First African American male to serve as a prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee
• Ural B. Adams: ^[10] First African American male to serve as the Public Defender of Shelby County, Tennessee (1979)
• Floyd Peete: ^[10] First African American male to serve as the Chancellor of Shelby County Chancery Court (1990)
• Tarik Sugarmon: ^[32] First African American male to serve as a juvenile court judge in Shelby County, Tennessee (2022)
• S.A. Wilbun: ^[10] First African American male to serve as the Assistant City Attorney in Memphis, Tennessee (1964) [ Shelby County, Tennessee]
• John George Morris: ^[33] First Greek American lawyer in Memphis, Tennessee [ Shelby County, Tennessee]
• Joe Brown: ^[34] First African American male prosecutor in Memphis, Tennessee [ Shelby County, Tennessee]

See also

• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States

Other topics of interest

• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Tennessee

References

1. "History and Milestones | Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts". www.tncourts.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
2. "Yardley, William Francis (1844-1924) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
3. Strauch, Irving (1992). "Jewish Judges from Memphis" (PDF). Jewish Historical Society of Memphis and the Mid-South.
4. Brock, Roslyn M. (2010-05-03). "Benjamin Hooks". Time. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 2018-01-11.
5. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. 2010.
6. "Milestones". benfjones.org. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
7. The Journal of the Constitutional Convention. The Convention. 1977.
8. "Justice A.A. Birch dies at age 78" . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
9. Ely, James W.; Brown (Jr.), Theodore; Huebner, Timothy S.; Brown, R. Ben; Thompson, Ruth Anne; Vile, John R.; Pierce, Carl A. (2002). A History of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Univ. of Tennessee Press. ISBN   978-1-57233-178-5.
10. "Milestones « Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association". benfjones.com. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
11. Upon Birch's appointment as a Criminal Court Judge for the Twentieth District (Davidson County) in 1978
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13. Sabato, Larry (2003). Midterm Madness: The Elections of 2002. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9780742526860.
14. Gainey, Blaise (2023-10-02). "Tennessee Judge Richard Dinkins, who paved the way for desegregating Nashville schools, has died". WPLN News. Retrieved 2023-10-04.
15. Mason, Richard. "Judge Hector Sanchez becomes first Hispanic trial court judge in Tennessee". WVLT. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
16. Staff, Times; Reports, Wire (2006-02-24). "Odell Horton, 77; First Modern Black Federal Judge in Tennessee". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
17. "Judge 'Joe' Haynes Jr. plans to take a step back". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
18. "Varlan Sworn in as Eastern District's Chief Federal Judge - Articles". www.tba.org. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
19. "Here's something you don't see every day: A Republican gave a Joe Biden judicial nominee the one vote he needed to pass the Senate". www.politico.com. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
20. "Judge Arthur T. Bennett honored for his service to the state of Tennessee". localmemphis.com. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
21. deGregory, Crystal A. (May 2011). "RAISING A NONVIOLENT ARMY: FOUR NASHVILLE BLACK COLLEGES AND THE CENTURY-LONG STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, 1830s-1930s" (PDF). Graduate School of Vanderbilt University.
22. King, Lovalerie (2003). A Student's Guide to African American Literature, 1760 to the Present. Peter Lang. ISBN   9780820455211.
23. "No Story Untold - Parthenon Publishing". Parthenon Publishing. 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2018-02-14.
24. "Classmate Announcements - Vanderbilt Lawyer (Volume 37, Number 1)". law.vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-14.
25. "Martesha L. Johnson, Chief Public Defender – Public Defender of Metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County". publicdefender.nashville.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
26. "Race relations in Chattanooga". timesfreepress.com. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
27. "Gerald Webb Sworn In As The First African American Judge For Hamilton County, Tennessee, Courts". Essence. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
28. Smith, Jessie Carney (2012-12-01). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Visible Ink Press. ISBN   9781578594245.
29. Clark, Alexis (22 February 2021). "Meet Montgomery County's first Black judge". The Leaf Chronicle. p. A.1. ProQuest   2491958513.
30. "Karen Willis county's first black female assistant DA". The Leaf-Chronicle. Clarksville, Tennessee. October 16, 2012. p. E4. Retrieved 2018-02-14– via Newspapers.com.
31. Trotter, Megan. "Contributors to progress honored at IMPACT banquet". Herald Citizen. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
32. Hawkins, Sydney. "Shelby County elects its first Black juvenile court judge". Action News 5. Retrieved 2022-08-12.
33. "George Morris Obituary (1941 - 2018) - Charleston, SC - Charleston Post & Courier". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
34. Moore, Scott (1998-08-30). "JOE BROWN: JUDGE FOR YOURSELF". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2022-02-15.