1966–1970
Thurmond Clarke (June 29,1902 –February 28,1971) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Born in Santa Paula,California,Clarke graduated from Los Angeles High School and received a Bachelor of Laws from the USC Gould School of Law in 1927. [1] He was a deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County,California from 1927 to 1929,and then a deputy city attorney of the City of Los Angeles from 1929 to 1932. He was a Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court from 1932 to 1935,appointed by Governor James Rolph and was elevated to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County by Governor Frank Merriam,serving in that position from 1935 to 1955. [2] [1]
In December 1945,Judge Clarke dismissed the suit of eight white property owners who tried to force fifty African-American occupants (250 residents) from the West Adams area in Los Angeles. Plaintiffs contended that the defendants had violated property restrictions against blacks. The defendants,who included actress Hattie McDaniel and singer Ethel Waters,replied that the original subdivision restrictions had expired and that more than half of the area was then owned by black people. Clark decided that no testimony would be taken in the case,and he wrote that "it is time that members of the Negro race are accorded,without reservations and evasions,the full rights guaranteed to them" under the Federal Constitution. [3] [4]
Clarke’s ruling made him “the first judge in America to use the 14th Amendment to disallow the enforcement of covenant race restrictions. The decision ... set an important precedent for future suits concerning racial covenants." [5]
Clarke was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 21,1955,to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California,to a new seat authorized by 68 Stat. 8. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 1,1955,and received his commission on August 3,1955. He served as Chief Judge in 1966. Clarke was reassigned by operation of law to the United States District Court for the Central District of California on September 18,1966,to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat. 75. He served as Chief Judge from 1966 to 1970. In July 1970 at La Casa Pacifica he swore James Day Hodgson into office as Secretary of Labor for the Nixon administration. [1] Clarke assumed senior status on September 1,1970. [2]
His sentencing practices were criticized as unorthodox and lenient by other judges,such as his predecessor Chief Judge Peirson Hall. [6]
Thurmond Clarke was the son of Judge Robert M. Clarke. After divorcing in 1937,he married again in 1944 to Athalie Richardson Irvine,who was his high school classmate. [6] He was father to Frances and stepfather to Joan Irvine Smith. [7]
The United States District Court for the Central District of California is a federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California,making it the most populous federal judicial district. The district was created on September 18,1966. Cases from the Central District are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Along with the Central District of Illinois,the court is the only district court referred to by the name "Central" –all other courts with similar geographical names instead use the term "Middle."
California Proposition 14 was a November 1964 initiative ballot measure that amended the California state constitution to nullify the 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Act,thereby allowing property sellers,landlords and their agents to openly discriminate on ethnic grounds when selling or letting accommodations,as they had been permitted to before 1963. The proposition became law after receiving support from 65% of voters. In 1966,the California Supreme Court in a 5–2 split decision declared Proposition 14 unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision in 1967 in Reitman v. Mulkey.
Peirson Mitchell Hall was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Robert Joseph Kelleher was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California and an American tennis player and official,inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.
Loren Miller was an American journalist,civil rights activist,attorney,and judge. Miller was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court by governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown in 1964 and served until his death in 1967. Miller was a specialist in housing discrimination,whose involvement in the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement earned him a reputation as a tenacious fighter for equal housing opportunities for minorities. Miller argued some of the most historic civil rights cases ever heard before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was chief counsel before the court in the 1948 decision that led to the outlawing of racial restrictive covenants,Shelley v. Kraemer.
Atsushi Wallace Tashima is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He is the third Asian American and first Japanese American to be appointed to a United States Court of Appeals.
David Welford Williams was an American attorney and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California,the first African-American federal judge west of the Mississippi. He is best known for his work in the abolition of restrictive covenants and for overseeing 4,000 criminal cases that stemmed from the 1965 Watts riots.
Jesse William Curtis Jr. was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Terry J. Hatter Jr. is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Aloysius Andrew Hauk was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Lawrence Tupper Lydick was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Consuelo Bland Marshall is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Manuel Lawrence Real was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He was appointed in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Albert Lee Stephens Jr. was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Oscar A. Trippet was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The Trippet Ranch gate of Topanga State Park is named for him,as his family owned the land through the first half of the 20th century.
John Clifford Wallace is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
John F. Walter is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Sidney Preston Dones was an American businessman involved in real estate,insurance,legal services,and the film business. Sidney P. Dones Company was on 8th and Central next to the California Eagle.
West Adams Heights is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles,California. It contains three Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments.
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