February is Black History Month. In honor of this occasion, the Law Library will publish a blog each week highlighting resources that focus on African American leaders in their law-related fields: Civil Rights Activists; Justices & Judges; Government Officials; and, Firsts in Their Field.

In Justices & Judges, our second entry of the series, explore materials on influential African Americans who have made significant contributions to the legal field through judicial service. Highlighted resources include databases that contain historical and modern legal analysis, biographies of African American judges, select court opinions, and videos and books by or about Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas, Constance Baker Motley, Thelton Henderson, Damon J. Keith, and Matthew J. Perry.

Featured Databases:

Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789-present
The directory includes the biographies of presidentially-appointed judges who have served since 1789 on the U.S. district courts, U.S. courts of appeals, Supreme Court of the United States, and U.S. Court of International Trade, as well as the former U.S. circuit courts, Court of Claims, U.S. Customs Court, and U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

The Federal Judicial Center created a list of the names of African American Judges on Federal Courts. The list a subset of the full directory and biographies can be accessed directly from this page.

CQ Supreme Court Collection
CQ Supreme Court Collection contains summaries and analysis of more than four thousand major decisions, historical and contemporary, including all cases in which the Burger and Rehnquist Courts (October 1969 to the present) issued a written opinion. Includes links to the full text of the cases. The collection can be searched by topic, justice, and case name. Includes tools to research justices’ voting records and opinion alignments.

govinfo: United States Courts Opinions, Select Courts from 2004 to Present
United States Courts Opinions (USCOURTS) collection is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to provide public access to opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. The content of this collection dates back to April 2004, though searchable electronic holdings for some courts may be incomplete for this earlier time period. Select National courts, such as the Court of International Trade, are also available in this collection.

Print & Video Resources:

United States Courts: African American History Month
In the Pathways to the Bench series, view video profiles of African American federal judges who offer perspectives on their experiences during the Civil Rights era. In the videos, judges share first-person accounts of their different paths through the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s and what motivated them to enter the law and, eventually, become judges.

Matthew J. Perry : the man, his times, and his legacy / William Lewis Burke.
Call Number: KF373.P477M38 2004
This book chronicles the life and accomplishments of the attorney who led the struggle for desegregation in South Carolina, served as a primary legal advocate in the national civil rights movement, and became South Carolina’s first African American U.S. District Court judge. In this volume, scholars of the civil rights era, fellow civil rights activists, jurists, attorneys, a governor, and an award-winning photojournalist join together to produce a multilayered biography of Matthew J. Perry. Collectively they bring to light the remarkable achievements of a man well known in his home state but sometimes obscured on the national stage by the shadows of Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston.

Judge Thelton Henderson : breaking new ground / Richard B. Kuhns.
Call Number: KF373.H448K84 2017
Thelton Henderson rose from humble origins to become a leading civil rights attorney and innovator of minority admissions programs. This book traces his career from a football star to his work in the 1960’s as the first African-American lawyer from the Justice Department in the South to his notable and controversial decisions on such matters as veterans’ affairs, educational and prison reform, and the environment. Judge Henderson’s background and remarkable achievements challenge readers to consider what it means to be a wise and effective judge in modern America.

Equal justice under law : an autobiography / Constance Baker Motley.
Call Number: KF373.M64A34 1998
Constance Baker Motley was a pioneer in both black civil rights and women’s rights. As the key attorney assisting Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court (winning all but one), and her representation of James Meredith in his bid to enroll in the University of Mississippi made her famous. Subsequently, as Manhattan borough president and a U.S. district court judge, she fulfilled the highest aspirations of our legal and political system. This book, the most detailed account to date of the legal conflicts of the civil rights movement, is also an account of Motley’s struggle, as a black woman, to succeed, a record of a life lived with great courage and responsibility.

Understanding Clarence Thomas : the jurisprudence of constitutional restoration / Ralph A. Rossum.
Call Number: KF8745.T48R67 2014
Understanding Clarence Thomas traces the many consequences that, for Thomas, flow from the centrality of that “self-evident” truth, and how these shape his opinions in cases concerning desegregation, racial preference, and voting rights. The most thorough explication ever given of the jurisprudence of this prolific but little-understood justice, this work offers a unique opportunity to grasp not just the meaning of Clarence Thomas’s opinions but their significance for the Supreme Court and constitutional interpretation in our day.

Showdown : Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court nomination that changed America / Wil Haygood.
Call Number: KF8745.M34H394 2015
Over the course of his forty-year career, Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this powerful biography, Wil Haygood uses the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, to weave a provocative and moving look at Marshall’s life as well as at the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped—or desperately tried to stop—the civil rights movement.

Crusader for justice : federal judge Damon J. Keith / Peter J. Hammer.
Call Number: KF373.K44H36 2014
The Honorable Damon J. Keith was appointed to the federal bench in 1967 and has served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 1977, where he has been an eloquent defender of civil and constitutional rights and a vigorous enforcer of civil rights law. In Crusader for Justice: Federal Judge Damon J. Keith, authors Peter J. Hammer and Trevor W. Coleman present the first ever biography of native Detroiter Judge Keith, surveying his education, important influences, major cases, and professional and personal commitments. Judge Keith’s forty-five years on the bench offer a unique viewpoint on a tumultuous era of American and legal history. Readers interested in Civil Rights-era law, politics, and personalities will appreciate the portrait of Keith’s fortitude and conviction in Crusader for Justice.