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Black History & Milestones in the Tennessee Courts

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Black History & Milestones in the Tennessee Courts Black History & Milestones in Judge Benjamin Hooks becomes the first African American judge in state history when he is appointed Justice George Brown becomes the Tennessee Courts to the Shelby County Criminal the first African American justice Court by Governor Frank Clement. on the Tennessee Supreme He wins election to the seat in 1966 Court after his appointment by and steps down from the bench in Governor Lamar Alexander. In Cook v. State, the Tennessee Supreme Court 1968. Later in his career, he would He loses an election to the seat declares that the recently passed Dortch Act, which serve for five years as commissioner later that year. Justice Brown is In Ford v. Ford, Justice Nathan Green asserts that “a required a secret ballot in cities with large African of the Federal Communications subsequently elected to the 30th slave is not in the condition of a horse or an ox…[He]e American populations and made it illegal to help Commission and as executive Judicial Circuit Court bench in is made after the image of the Creator…He has mental illiterate voters fill out their ballots, is constitutional. director of the NAACP. 1983, and serves as a judge there capacities and an immortal principle in his nature According to scholars, this Act, along with the poll tax, until his retirement from the that constitute him equal to his owner but for the resulted in large reductions of African American voter bench in 2005. accidental position to which fortune has placed him.” participation. The case concerned a slave owner, Loyd Ford, who in The Tennessee Supreme In James Earl Ray v. State, the Judge Camille McMullen his will freed his slaves and gave them his land. His Court rules in Biggs v. Supreme Court denies James Earl becomes the first African children disputed the will, but it was declared valid The Tennessee Supreme Court, in Lonas v. State, up- Beeler that the General Ray’s request for a full trial after American female to sit on by the trial court and Supreme Court, after which holds the constitutionality of a recently passed law Assembly’s recent repeal he had confessed to murdering an appellate court when Larkin Ford and the other Ford slaves were freed and banning miscegenation. “The laws of civilization of the state’s poll tax is Martin Luther King, Jr. she joins the Court of given the land left to them in the will. demand that the races be kept apart in this country,” unconstitutional because Criminal Appeals. the Court decided. a poll tax is mandated in the 1870 state constitution. In Fields v. State, the Supreme Court Chief Justice Grafton of Error and Appeals holds a white Lutie Lytle becomes the first woman Green and Justice A.B. Neil In 1954, the U.S. Supreme man can be charged with manslaughter and first black female to graduate dissent, alleging that the Court’s Brown v. Board of Judge Bernice Donald becomes the first African American for killing a slave. Justice Jacob Peck, from law school and be admitted to Court’s decision violates Education decision holds that female judge in Tennessee history when she is elected to the Three years before the passage of the a slave owner himself, wrote in a the bar in Tennessee. She attended the separation of powers. segregation in public schools Shelby County General Sessions Court bench. She will later 15th Amendment, Governor Brownlow concurring opinion that a slave was a Central Tennessee College, a school is unconstitutional, sparking sit as a U.S. bankruptcy judge before joining the the United signs a bill giving African American “reasonable creature” and that “the law established for African American fierce resistance in many parts States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee men gain the right to vote in Tennessee. which says thou shalt not kill, protects students in Nashville, and graduated of the South. In Tennessee, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. This right would be severely limited in the slave.” He continued: “Law, reason, as valedictorian of her class. Her efforts In State ex rel. Michael v. Witham, a crisis erupts in Anderson subsequent years with the passage of Christianity and common humanity, to join the bar are rebuffed by several the Supreme Court denies Afri- County in August, when 12 various Jim Crow laws. all point out one way.” The practical can American graduate students African American students courts, but she is admitted to the bar by Judge Richard Dinkins becomes effect of this decision in the courts has admittance to the University of are enrolled at Clinton High a sympathetic judge in Memphis, after the first African American been debated because slaves were still Tennessee. The Court holds that a School for the coming school the administration of an oral bar exam. member of the Court of not allowed to testify against white law recently passed by the General year. In an October ruling, the Shortly after, she moves from Tennessee. Appeals, after his appointment defendants. Assembly mandating that the state Court declares that they are by Governor Phil Bredesen. must provide African American bound to honor the decisions of Voters approve the new 1870 students with “educational training the U.S. Supreme Court under constitution. The new constitution and instruction” can be achieved by the Supremacy Clause of the The Supreme Court of Error and Appeals explicitly bans slavery in the state. creating a graduate studies program Federal Constitution. rules in Bob, a Slave v. State that a slave owner The voting rights of African American is created at the Tennessee Agricul- The Tennessee General can appeal the conviction of his slave in one men are enshrined in the 1870 tural and Industrial State College Assembly votes to ratify the 14th of the state’s slave courts to a higher court. constitution, but are curtailed by the for Negroes, now Tennessee State Amendment, making Tennessee The state’s slave courts had been set up to try inclusion of a poll tax provision. University, in the next few years. Judge Adolpho A. Birch Jr.’s long and distinguished In 2021, there are 26 Black state and any serious offenses allegedly perpetrated by the third state to do so. The state judicial career begins when he is appointed to the general sessions judges in the state, slaves. While some have argued that this case rejoined the Union soon after. Davidson County General Sessions Court, becoming which is less than 10 percent of all really just helped slave owners protect their the first African American General Sessions judge in judges. All but one of these judges own economic interests by making it more In Smith v. Smith, the Tennessee Supreme the state. In 1978, he became the first African Ameri- resides in either Shelby or Davidson Horatio Nelson Rankin difficult for one of their slaves to be executed, Court upholds the constitutionality of a law can criminal court judge in state history after he was counties. becomes the first African others have maintained that Bob, a Slave v. requiring railroad cars to be segregated by appointed to the 20th Judicial District Criminal Court. Tennessee secedes from American lawyer in State in fact greatly expanded legal protections race and for “separate but equal” accom- In 1987, he is appointed to the Court of Criminal Ap- the Union. Tennessee. He is admitted to slaves. Slave courts would not be abolished modations for different races. peals and in 1993, he joins the Supreme Court, where to the bar in Memphis. until 1854. he will serve as chief justice. 1982 2021 2008 1969 1871 1942 1965 1870 1897 1943 1971 1980 1865 1868 1898 1829 1861 1956 1891 1825 1846 2008 1867.
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