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Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise

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Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise Missouri Law Review Volume 86 Issue 1 Winter 2021 Article 5 Winter 2021 Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise Willie J. Epps Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Willie J. Epps Jr., Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise, 86 MO. L. REV. (2021) Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol86/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Missouri Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Epps: Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise MISSOURI LAW REVIEW VOLUME 86 WINTER 2021 NUMBER 1 Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise Willie J. Epps, Jr.* ABSTRACT In this Article, Judge Epps amasses and orchestrates an unprecedented amount of information about Missouri’s Black lawyers from 1871 to 2021. As Missouri marks its bicentennial, and the sesquicentennial of the first Black lawyer admitted to practice here, this Article offers analysis and insights about the most well-known Black lawyers, including new details on many previously unknown Black lawyers. According to Judge Epps, the earliest of these legal pioneers courageously practiced law when Blacks had few or no rights under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution, and de jure and de facto discrimination reigned in Missouri. His research shows how Black attorneys fought prejudice within the profession even as they represented Black clients before a sometimes hostile Judiciary. Judge Epps’s scholarship also spotlights a generation of Missouri Black lawyers who shattered ceilings, sparking * United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Missouri. A.B., 1992, Amherst College; J.D., 1995, Harvard Law School. I would like to thank Kathryn Winfrey, branch librarian, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and John W. Kurtz, Partner, Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P., for their invaluable assistance in researching Missouri’s Black legal pioneers, as well as Eric Kendall Banks, Judge Duane Benton, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper, Keith A. Cutler, Edward L. Dowd, Jr., Mischa Buford Epps, Dean Roger A. Fairfax, Jr., Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr., Judge Jon R. Gray, Judge Lisa White Hardwick, Basil L. North, Jr., Professor Kimberly Jade Norwood, Professor Leonard S. Rubinowitz, Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge, Beatryx Epps Washington, and Professor David B. Wilkins for their helpful insights. I gratefully acknowledge the substantial assistance of my law clerks: Cailynn D. Hayter, University of Missouri School of Law, J.D. 2017; Josh M. LeVasseur, University of Michigan School of Law, J.D. 2019; Grace Colato Martinez, University of Missouri- Kansas City School of Law, J.D. 2018; and Jonathan M. Warren, University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D. 2018. I thank Trent Hamoud, my summer 2020 intern, University of Missouri School of Law, J.D. expected 2022. What errors remain are mine. Published by University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository, 2021 1 Missouri Law Review, Vol. 86, Iss. 1 [2021], Art. 5 2 MISSOURI LAW REVIEW [Vol. 86 progress within the profession. This Article is the essential resource to understand the stony road Blacks have trod, the transformation of civil rights law, and the challenges ahead. https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol86/iss1/5 2 Epps: Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise 2021] PROGRESS AND PROMISE OF BLACK MISSOURI LAWYERS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT….. ................................................................................................. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... 3 I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 4 II. JUST THE BEGINNING, 1871-1921 ............................................................... 7 A. John H. Johnson ................................................................................ 13 B. Albert Burgess ................................................................................... 16 C. Hale Giddings Parker ....................................................................... 20 D. Walter Moran Farmer ...................................................................... 22 E. D.D. Sledge ....................................................................................... 26 F. L. Amasa Knox .................................................................................. 27 G. Charles Henry Calloway .................................................................. 29 H. Homer G. Phillips ............................................................................. 30 I. Silas E. Garner ................................................................................... 31 J. Laws Designed to Hold Back Pioneering Black Lawyers ................. 32 III. STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, 1921–1971 ............................................. 34 A. George L. Vaughn ............................................................................. 36 B. Sidney Redmond ................................................................................ 36 C. Dorothy L. Freeman .......................................................................... 39 D. Margaret Bush Wilson ...................................................................... 39 E. Frankie Muse Freeman ..................................................................... 40 F. Leona Pouncey Thurman .................................................................. 43 G. Lula Morgan Howard ....................................................................... 44 IV. INCREASED OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PROFESSION, 1971-2021 ................ 55 A. MaJority Law Firms in Missouri ....................................................... 56 B. Black Law Firms in Missouri ............................................................ 73 C. High Profile MaJority-Minority Partnerships ................................... 80 D. The Judges ........................................................................................ 81 E. The Public Lawyers ......................................................................... 127 F. The Executives ................................................................................. 144 F. The Professors ................................................................................. 153 V. THE BAR ASSOCIATIONS ........................................................................ 162 A. American Bar Association ............................................................... 163 B. National Bar Association ................................................................ 164 C. The Missouri Bar ............................................................................ 167 D. Metropolitan Bar Associations ....................................................... 173 VI. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 179 Published by University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository, 2021 3 Missouri Law Review, Vol. 86, Iss. 1 [2021], Art. 5 4 MISSOURI LAW REVIEW [Vol. 86 I. INTRODUCTION As we celebrate the MIssourI BicentennIal,1 it is time to observe how the professIonal, polItIcal, and social standing of Black lawyers In MIssourI has progressed substantIally. Black lawyers occupy IMportant and prestIgious posItIons In the State, Including: partners at large law fIrMs; general counsel and executIve offIcers of corporatIons and large companies; the Mayor of Kansas City; the Circuit Attorney in the City of St. Louis; the Prosecuting Attorney for St. LouIs County; the ExecutIve Director of The MIssourI Bar; and tenured professors at the four MIssouri law schools.2 A Black Man 1. In 1820, amid growing sectional tensions over the issue of slavery, the U.S. Congress passed a law that admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery from the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands located north of the 36º 30’ parallel. This law, now known as the Missouri Compromise, allowed Missouri to enter the Union on August 10, 1821. 16th Cong., 3 Stat. 545 (1820), https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/16th- congress/c16.pdf [https://perma.cc/F3BR-7MNS]. The Supreme Court of Missouri was established a year earlier when Missourians approved a constitution to submit to Congress. MO. CONST. art. V, § 1 (1820). 2. Wesley O. Fields is the managing partner of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Kansas City Office. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner – Wesley O. Fields, BRYAN CAVE LEIGHTON PAISNER, https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/people/wesley-o-fields.html [https://perma.cc/M256-YATH]. Keith Williamson serves as President of the Centene Charitable Foundation, after stepping down as General Counsel of Centene Corporation, the second largest publicly traded company in the State. Centene Appoints Chris Koster to Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel and Keith Williamson to President of the Centene Charitable Foundation, CENTENE CORPORATION, (Feb. 3, 2020), https://centene.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news- release-details/centene-appoints-chris-koster-senior-vice-president-secretary [https://perma.cc/QY2S-7FMC].
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