"Alberta-Jones" (November 12,1930-August 5,1965)

Was born to Sarah (Sadie)  Frances Crawford  & Odell Jones,in Louisville,Kentucky.Alberta attended Louisville Central High School and the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes,which in 1951 merged with the University of Louisville.She graduated third in her class.

In 1956 she became the first African American to  attend the University of Louisville Law School,Alberta transferred to Howard University School of Law in her second year.She graduated fourth in her class from Howard in 1958 and the next year she became one of the first African American women to pass the Kentucky Bar.In 1959 she returned to Kentucky and opened a law office in downtown Louisville.

Alberta was the first attorney for the rising boxer Cassius Clay ( later Muhammad Ali),negotiating his first professional fight contract in 1960.
She was a member of the Fall City Bar Association,the Louisville Bar Association,and the American Bar Association.Alberta was also a member of Eta Zeta Chapter of  Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.She participated in 1963 civil rights marches in Louisville and in the March on Washington on August 28 of that year.

In her hometown,in 1960 became an advocate for increased African American political participation.She created the Independent Voter's Association which 
registered 6,000 African Americans. She rented voting machines and held classes in her office on "how to vote four your candidate." Her efforts resulted in a major political shakeup in 1961 when African-American voters helped oust the mayor and many of the city's aldermen.Two years later the new city administration enacted the first public accommodations ordinance in the South.

Because of her now-considerable political influence,Alberta in 1964 was appointed city attorney in Louisville,becoming the first woman of any race to hold that position.In February 1965 she was appointed prosecutor for the 
Domestic Relations Court again a first for a woman or a person of color.
Ironically,she was responsible for prosecuting mostly white men for spousal 
abuse.

On August 5,1965, her body was found tossed off Louisville's Sherman Minton Bridge into the Ohio River.She was either 34 or 35 at the time of her death.An autopsy revealed that Alberta had received several blows to her head before being tossed unconscious into the water,where she drowned.Her rented car was found several blocks from the bridge with traces of blood in it,and her purse was found from the bridge three years later.


Witness later recalled seeing a body being tossed in the river by three undentified men at the bridge.The night before her death,Alberta's mama recalled her daughter receiving a phone from a friend named Gladys Whyckoff who wanted Alberta to meet her to discuss a lawsuit against 
a beautician.Alberta left for the meeting she never returned home.

The FBI matched a fingerprint found inside Alberta car to a man who was 17-years-old at the time,prosecutors decided two years later not to pursue the case,citing deaths of key witnesses who later turned to be alive.

In 2017,the Jones case reopened,funded by the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act,which provided $13 million dollars annually to the Department of Justice,the FBI,and U.S. State and local law officials to investigate and prosecute pre-1970 murders.Nonetheless,the murder of 
Alberta Jones remain unsolved.

"Josiah "Joe" Thomas Settle" (September 30,1850-August 21,1915)

Was a a lawyer in Washington,D.C.,Sardis,Mississippi,and Memphis Tennessee.He was a part of Howard University's first graduating class in 1872.In 1875,he moved to Mississippi and was elected a member of the 

Mississippi House of Representatives in 1883.In 1885 he moved to Memphis 

where he was appointed Assistant Attorney-General in Shelby County.He 

held that position for two years before turning to private practice.

Josiah was born a slave in the Cumberland Mountains of  East Tennessee or 
North Carolina to Nancy Settle.His daddy was the owner of the family,also 
named Josiah,and at the time of his birth,his master was moving the household from their home in Rockingham,North Carolina to Mississippi.
His daddy was wealthy,having been a slave trader while that was possible .He was the son of David and Rhonda Settle.He had two daughters by his first 
wife,who died in 1829 in childbirth.Nancy Ann was a slave of  Azariah Graves,
a North Carolina militia general in the war of  1812,and may have been a child of his or someone in his family.Josiah Sr.Josiah Sr. and Nancy had ten children Josiah Sr. kept a large number of slaves on his plantation in Tishomingo County.Josiah Sr.felt devoted to Josiah's mama and children by 
her,and in the 1850s manumitted her and their children.As the state forbade 
the presence of free African-Americans,in March 1856,they moved to Hamilton,Ohio,although Josiah kept his slaves and plantation in Mississippi 
and lived there in the fall,winter, and Spring.In 1858 Josiah's married and in 
1861,when the American Civil War began,the elder Josiah sold his land and slaves in Mississippi and moved to Ohio and supported the Union.He died 
in the Spring of 1869.

Josiah first attended schools near Hamilton,although faced discrimination 
in school until the school until the school received a new school in the spring 
of  1866,Josiah started preparatory school in Oberlin,Ohio,and entered Oberlin College in 1868.At Oberlin,he participated in an integrated baseball
club called the Resolutes which included African American Simpson Younger 
and a number of whites including Phil Dixion and Patrick J.Hannigan.The Club played against a number of semipro and professional clubs and was 
very successful,its only losses coming to the Cleveland Forest City's.The next 
Year he graduated from Howard in 1872 in the schools first class along with 
James Monroe Gregory and Arthur Clough O'Hear; Arthur died in 1876 in 
Charleston, South Carolina.During his last two years at Howard,Josiah 
in the education division of the Freedmen's Bureau and in the last last part 
part of  his senior year he became reading clerk of the Washington,DC  of 
Delegates under Alexander Shepherd.He also began teaching at the university of  before graduating,and after graduating joined the new law department 
and was admitted to the DC bar.He also was active in DC politics,and served 
as a clerk in the Board of Public Works,as an account in the Board of Audits,
and as a trustee of the county schools for the district.He also an active pioneer Hilldale neighborhood.

He supported Ulysses S.Grant in the 1872 Presidential Election and campaign 
in Maryland and in his home state of Ohio.Josiah return to Mississippi in March 1875 and was admitted to the bar in that state.His work at first brought him to various locations throughout the state,finally settling at Sardis in Panola County in northwestern Mississippi,forming a partnership 
with D.T.J.Matthews.In the summer of that year he married Theresa T.Vogelsang from Annapolis,Maryland in Washington,DC. Theresa was the only daughter of  William & Charity Bishop who were prominent freedmen in Maryland.In August,he was nominated to the position of District Attorney 
in Mississippi,but the 1875 election in Mississippi was overwhelmingly won 
by Democrats and Josiah lost.In 1876 and 1880 he was selected as a delegate 
to the Republican National Conventions.In 1876,he initially supported 
Roscoe Conking and Stewart Lyndon Woodford before turning to Rutherford 
Hayes and Chester Arthur.

In 1882,Josiah was encouraged to run for congress,but endorsed James Ronald Chalmers who ran as an independent Democrat and was awarded 
the seat after some controversy.Josiah Josiah was made chairman of the 
Republican Congressional Committee and campaign vigorously.In 1883,
the Republicans and Independent Democrats again sought a joint ticket 
for state legislature,which Josiah opposed.Josiah ran for a seat that year as 
an independent and was elected by a large majority.He was very successful 
as a speaker in the legislature,Josiah decided to sit only one term.After 
adjournment, he decided to move to Memphis and focus on law.

In the spring of 1885,shortly after moving to Memphis,he was appointed 
Assistant-Attorney General in Shelby County.He held this position until 
the end of Peter Turner's term as governor in January 1887.His firm was 
Humbert,Griggs,Settle, & Matthews.

From March 1886 to September 1887,Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was boarded with the Settles at their home on Lauderdale Street and Josiah was one of a number of  father figures for the budding journalist and activists.Ida and 
Theresa became close,Ida moved out when she felt the wealthy Settles' were 
cheap and asking for too much money.Ida would later criticize Josiah in 
her paper,Free Speech and called him a "sycophant" in her writings.
This was in response to Josiah and fellow African-American lawyer and 
fellow African-American lawyer Thomas Cassels'  representing members 
of Rev.Taylor Nightgale church on charges that Taylors' leadership was 
militant and incendiary  "on the race question." Taylor was was convicted 
and fled Memphis rather than serve his sentence of 80 days in prison.

In private practice in 1905,Josiah and Benjamin F.Booth represented Mary Morrison in a case challenging state law mandating segregation on street 
cars,the judge ruled in favor of the state law.In 1900 Josiah reported that 
"we haved faced unreasoning prejudice."We have faced unreasoning prejudice.We have found,not our clients,but ourselves on trial,and not 
ourselves alone,but the whole race with us.In the early 1910s,Booker T.Washington wrote that Josiah told him that as a lawyer he did not faced 
discrimination from judges,lawyers,or juries.

In 1906 he,Robert Reed Church,M.L. Clay, and T.H. Hayes founded the Solvent Bank &Trust Company at 392 Beale Street in Memphis.

Josiah was an Episcopalian,and in Memphis attended Emmanuel Episcopal 
Church.In 1910,he helped organize a Memphis chapter of Sigma Pi Phi along 
with James Carroll Napier of Nashville.In Memphis,he was a member of a 
circle African American elites which included Robert Reed Church his daughter Mary Church Terrell and her husband Robert Heberton Terrell,
Roscoe Conking Bruce,Charles Hookses,and Samuel A.McElwee.Josiah was 
the first president of the National Negro Bar Association (NNBA),serving 
from 1905 until 1913.The NNBA was affiliated the National Negro Business 
League which had been organized by Booker T.Washington.

On March 20,1890,Josiah married Fannie McCullough,director of music at 
Lemoyne Normal Institute.About that time the Settles lived on South Orleans Street.

Josiah died in in Memphis after a long illness.He had two sons,Josiah T, & 
Temoy.His sister,Cornelia A. married James Matthews Townsend in 1871.

Clifford-Alexander-Jr" (September 21,1933)

Is an American lawyer, businessman and public servant from New York City. He was the first African- American Secretary of the Army.

Clifford was born in New York in to Clifford Alexander and his wife.He attended the private Ethical Culture and Fieldston Schools.Clifford graduated from Harvard College in 1955 and from Yale Law School in 1958 and served brIefly with the 369th Field Artillery Battalion at Fort Dix,New Jersey.

He married Adele Logan in 1959.She became a professor at George Washington University after earning her doctorate in history and has specialized in African-American history.They have a daughter,Elizabeth Alexander (born in 1962)  and  Mark C.Alexander  (born in 1965).

After being admitted to the bar,Clifford served as an assistant district attorney for New York City,1959-1961.He became executive director of the Manhattanville Hamilton Grange Neighborhood Conservation Project.He next served as program and executive director of  Harlem Youth Opportunities.He also practiced law in New York City.

In 1963 during the John F. Kennedy administration,Clifford was called to Washington to serve as a foreign affairs officer on the National Security Council  staff.He served next as deputy assistant to President Lyndon B.Johnson,associate special council,and dupty special counsel on the White House staff,1964-1967.He appointed as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment  Opportunity Commission,1967-1969.Acting as a special representative of the President,he headed the U.S. delegation to ceremonies marking the independence of the Kingdom of Swaziland in 1968.

Leaving government service after Republican Richard M.Nixon was elected to the presidency,Clifford practiced law with the Washington firm of Arnold & Porter between 1969 & 1975.He was a television news commentator in Washington, D.C.,1972-1976; and also taught as a professor of law at Howard University,1973-1974.
In 1974 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for mayor of the District of Columbia.

He returned to law,becoming a partner in the law firm of  Verner,Lipfert,Bernard,Mcpherson and Hand. In 1975.

Clifford returned to public service as Secretary of the Army under the Carter Administration,serving from February 14, 1977- January 20,1981.He was the first African American appointed to this cabinet position.During this time he concentrated upon improving the all-volunteer Army,stressing programs to enhance professionalism,and emphasizing the reward of contracts to minority businesses to fulfill the federal commitment to encourage diversity.

In the early 21st century,Clifford has outspoken in his opposition to the "Don't Ask,Don't Tell policy of the military.He called for its repeal by Congress.Rachel Madow interviewed him on her MSNBC TV shows on May 11, 2009 & June 28, 2013.

In 1981 Clifford formed the consulting firm of Alexander and Associates.In addition,he serve on the boards of directors of several national corportions and is a member of the board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange.He is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

His and Adele's daughter Elizabeth Alexander became a poet professor of English at Yale University.She was commissioned to write and present a poem for President Barack Hussein Obama II, presidential inauguration.Elizabeth recited the poem " Praise Song for the Day" on January 20,2009.

Their son Mar C.Alexander is dean at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.He has serve as a political and campaign advisor to Bill Bradley,and Ted Kennedy,and President Obama.

A.T.Walden (April 12,1885-July 2,1965)

Was an African-American lawyer in Atlanta,Georgia who worked on many civil right cases,campaigns for voter registration by  African-Americans,and building collaboration with the white power structure.In 1964 he was appointed by the mayor of Atlanta as a municipal judge,the first African-American judge to appointed in the state of Georgia since Reconstruction.

Undeterred by the segregregated law,school in Georgia,A.T. earned his law degree from the University of Michigan and returned to Georgia in 1911 to practice,one of  the few African-Americans lawyers in the state
through the 1940s and 1950s.He played a critical role in achieving equal
pay for African-American schoolteachers in Atlanta in 1943,filing a suit in federal court.In 1952 he represented Horace Ward in the first legal challenge to seek admission by an African-American student to the all-white University of Georgia Law School.

A.T. became known as a southern civil rights leader,in some cases serving as a local lawyer for the NAACP in cases in which it had national
leadership.From 1946 he was active in leading efforts to get African-Americans registered to vote in the the city of Atlanta and contributed to numerous political and civil organizations. A major power broker in the city, he worked effectively with businessmen and political leaders.

Austin Thomas Ward was born in Fort Valley,Georgia.His parents,Jennie Tomlin and Jeff Walden,were children when freed from slavery after the
American Civil War.In 1907 A.T. graduated from Atlanta University,a historically African-American college.Because of  segregation,A.T. used a Georgia "out of state scholarship" and went to Michigan.He earned his
law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1911.(This practice of the state's offering scholarships because it refused to admit
African-American residents to its segregated law schools was ruled unconstititutional in 1938 in the Gaines case.)

For a short time A.T. practiced law in Macon,Georgia before he joined the US Army in 1917 with the United States entry into the Great War.A.T. was commissioned as a captain and served as an assistant judge advocate.He received an honorable discharge in 1919,at which time he settled in Atlanta and began his own law practice.

In May 1918 he married Mary Ellen Denner,a public school teacher from
Baltimore.They had two daughters,Jenelsie & Austella.

As an attorney he often represented African-American professionals who had been racially persecuted because of their middle-class status.
In 1927,a reputable African-American dentist in Atlanta was beaten after riding a streetcar and refusing to get off so the driver could have a
drinking party.He was charged with disorderly conduct,and A.T. successfully gained the dropping of these charges.

In another case,A.T. along with A.W. Ricks,represented Dr.& Mrs.C.A. Spence, who were beaten by a streetcar conductor after a dispute over a transfer.After months at trial,the Spences were acquitted of all criminal charges.Unsatisfied with the injustice the Spences suffered,in a
revolutionary turn of events,A.T. and A.W. filed action for damages against the streercar company.They won damages for the Spences in the amount of $1,500.

A.T. was also successful in a legal suit,lasting six years,which gained equal pay for African-American school teachers in Atlanta in 1943.In the early 1900s,the Board of Education had raised salaries of white teachers by cutting those of African-American teachers.The NAACP entered the continuing struggle and A.T. filed suit in federal district court on behalf of an African American teacher.This case signaled the entry of the federal government into school civil rights cases.

As one of the few African-American lawyers in Georgia,A.T. frequently worked with the national legal team of the NAACP,led by Thurgood Marshall,when the organization became involved in in a civil rights case.In 1948,while in commucation with the NAACP A.T. did not get directly involved in the case of the lynching of Robert Mallard in Lyons,Georgia,as his widow had already hired an attorney.Rather than
pursuing what had been described as a white mob that stop Mallard car and shot Mr.Mallard,the local sheriff arrested Mrs.Mallard on suspicion of murder.At the national level,the NAACP added the local law officials'
inadequate investigation to its argument for federal anti-lynching legislation.Having grown up in rural Georgia he was described as having a "pragmatic civil rights" vision that was less confrontational than that of the national office of the NAACP.He approached the Mallard case strategically for the way it might play into NAACP  long-term goals if the
local and state governments continued their blunders.

Additionally,as part of an effort to end segregated higher education,A.T.
represented Horace Ward in 1952 in the first lawsuit in the state in federal court for an African-American seeking admission to the all-white
law school at the University of Georgia.While his suit did not succeed,
A.T. attended and graduated from Northwestern University school of law in Chicago.Change was coming; A.T. later served as counsel for students in a 1961 suit that successfully gained them admission to the
University of Georgia.He was later appointed as a federal judge.

A.T. also had success in acting as the chief negotiator representing civil rights activists to desegregate lunch counters in Atlanta department and other stores.Students from local African-American colleges started
sit-ins in 1960,first at train and bus stations,which dealt with interstate
travel should have been covered by the United States constitution.They
moved on to Rich's Department Store in October,as it was a major downtown institution.They also opposed related discriminatory consumers practices in stores,such as preventing African-Americans from trying on clothes,using restrooms,and similar measures.After many activists were arrested,including Dr.Martin Luther King,Jr.,
students led economic boycotts of the department stores.By September 1961,many store owners desegregated their lunch counters. In 1962,a federal court ordered desegregation of the city's public pools and parks.
The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 overturned all state laws supporting racial segregation,but changes in practices took longer to take hold.

In 1948 A.T. founded and president of the Gate City Bar Association for
African-American lawyers in Atlanta.

In 1963 A.T. retired as a full-time attorney,he continued to take charity
cases for free.He remained actively involved as a political leader in civil rights in the city.

A.T. started as a Republican and served as chair of the Republican Party
executive committee from Georgia's 5th congressional district.As the Republican Party had declined drastically in the South following the turn of the century disenfranchisement of most African-American by state legislatures,A.T. decided to participate where there was competition.

In 1940 he became a persistent and committed member of the Democratic Party.For a period,the Georgia Democrats used the white primary to exclude African-Americans from voting.When that was struck by a United States Supreme Court decision in Smith v.Allright  (1944),African-American activists worked to register voters.

A.T. devoted much of his political career pursuing this objective in Atlanta after African-Americans were effectively enfranchised again in 1946.He became a founder and co-chair of the Atlanta Voters League and leader of the All-Citizens Registration Committee.Block-by-block efforts helped increased the number of African-American registered voters from 1,800 in 1910 to 25,000 by 1939,individual efforts routinely
encountered outright discriminatory practices by white registrars.By gaining representation in the city,African-American began to get results:the city invested more money in frastructure improvements in their neighborhoods and began to hire more African-American policemen.

In a sign of changing times,in 1962 A.T. was elected to the State Democratic Committee of Georgia.In 1963,he was appointed as a Georgia delegate to the  Democratic National Convention.A.T., along with Leroy Johnson were the first African-Americans to participate in a Georgia Democratic Convention delegation that year he was appointed by President John F.Kennedy as a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

In 1964 A.T. was appointed as the first African-American judge in the state after Reconstruction; Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen appointed him as an alternate judge of the municipal courts of Atlanta.In the period after
passage of civil rights legislation,white conservatives left the Democratic Party and moved into the Republican Party in Georgia and other former Confederate states.

Throughout his life A.T. was actively involved in the community and recognized for his steadfast efforts in gaining equal rights for African-Americans.He was involved in a number of different organizations in which he held leadership positions including: founder and president of the Gate City Bar Association,chairman of the Executive Board of the YMCA and the Atlanta Urban League,president of the Alumni Association
of Atlanta University,national vice-president of the NAACP,member of its National Legal Committee,chairman of the trustee board of Wheat Street Baptist Church,teacher of the Bryant Bible class,and founder and co-chairman of the Atlanta Negro Voters League.

A.T. died in Atlanta.He had lived long enough to witness  passage of the
Civil Rights Act,of which was passed by Congress later in 1965 and signed by President Lyndon B.Johnson.The Atlanta mayor praised him saying,"Much of Atlanta's outstanding pioneer progress and better race relations was due to the effective leadership of 'Colonel' Walden.His leadership laid the groundwork for much that is not an accepted fact.

"Juanita-Kidd-Stout"[March 7,1919-August 21, 1998]

"If  I had nine lives,I'd want to be a lawyer every day of every one,I enjoy it so."With this sensibility and love for the legal system,Juanita made the correct decision in choosing her life's work.She established a reputation long before she left Oklahoma to resettle in Philadelphia and became a prominent judge.

Born an only child to educators Henry & Mary Kidd in Weoka, Oklahoma,Juanita leaned to read at age two and remained a stellar student gained from the experience of having excellent African American teachers,and won numerous prizes at school and agricultural  exhibitions for scholarship and creativity.t age 16 she left for Lincoln University in Jefferson,Missouri.While at Lincoln,she joined Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and personally observed African American attorney Charles Hamilton Houston argue Gaines v.Missouri in the state supreme court.Later,she transferred to the University and earned bachelor's degree in music.At the time she was one of  a
mere 2% of  African Americans held a four year college degree.Three years later she married Charles Otis Stout.By the end of the decade Juanita held two law degrees from Indiana University and moved to Washington, D.C. where she became the administrative secretary to Charles Hamilton Houston.

During the early 1950s Juanita moved to Philadelphia where she practiced criminal and civil law.In 1955 she received an appointment as assistant district attorney in the "City of  Brotherly Love." An indefatigable worker,for three straight years she worked 4 a.m.-8 p.m. preparing for legal cases.By November 1959 she became the first African American woman elected to judgeship in Pennsylvania.In February 1988 she established another milestone,becoming the first African American woman appointed to sit on Pennsylvania's State Supreme Court.

After her many honors,Judge Stout was an inductee into the Oklahoma Hall of  Fame,a Distinguished Daughter of  Pennsylvania,and was recognized by the National Association of women Judges as Judge of the year in 1988.

She died of leukemia.

"Charles-Howard-Sr"( March 10-1890-1969)

He was born in Des Moines and graduated  from the Fort Des Moines officer-candidate school in 1917.One year later Charles was a second lieutenant and serving with the 92nd Division,366th,Infantry in France  during World War I.After the military,Charles received his law degree from Drake University in 1920.He was a gifted lawyer who never lost a capital trial.

Charles co-founded the National  Bar Association in 1925,and was also an Iowa Bystander  columnist in the 1920s and 1930s,and later published the Iowa Observer newspaper in 1939.He was a friend of  entertainer Paul Robeson and in 1948;he keynoted the Progressive Party National
Convention Two years later,after attending the Communist-sponsored World Peace Congress in Warsaw,Poland; Charles returned to Iowa the target  of intense criticism and was disbarred in 1951.

He served as the National  Negro Press correspondent at the United Nations until his death.He is considered by many Iowa's most colorful journalist of all time.

"Joseph-Clemens-Howard-Sr." [December 9,1922-September 16,2000]

Was the first  African American to win an election as judge for the Baltimore City Supreme Bench and was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States District Court for the District of  Maryland,becoming the first African America to serve on that bench.

He was born to Charles Preston Howard & Maude L. (Lewis) Howard in Des Moines Iowa.His parents were African-American.His daddy,a friend of civil rights leader Dr. Ralph Bunche.His mama has been described as Native American (Sioux).She was actually the daughter of  Thomas D.Lewis (1846-1909) & Mary Adeline Tann (18551939) of Fayette,Iowa,both members of being a private in the 38th Regiment
USCT,of four USCT units that were the first US troops to march into Richmond,Virginia when it fell in April 1865.Joseph's great-uncle Theodore Wright Lewis (1853-1922),an AME pastor who served churches in Iowa,Illinois,and Kansas and of the founding members of the NAACP in the Davenport,Iowa and Rock Island,Illinois area.His daddy was a lawyer and one of the National Bar Association,an of African-American attroneys.

Joseph served in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946.During World War II,he commended
Filipino troops and ran a Japanese prisoner-of-war-war camp.He was honorably discharge with the rank of Captain.

After his discharge,he resumed his education at the University Of Iowa and graduated in 1950.Prior to the war,Joseph had tried  out for made the football team,he was the only African American player on the team.During a 1944 game against the Indiana University,his coach yelled out to the Iowa defense:"We gotta  stop that nigger" , referring to the opposing team's running back.Joseph immediately
walked up to his coach and asked him to apologize;he didn't,and Joseph quit the team.Later at the Drake University Law School,he became the first African-American student admitted to the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity.He earned his law degree in
1955 and was married to Gwendolyn Mae London that same year.

In 1959,after they moved to Baltimore,Maryland,Joseph passed the Maryland bar exam and then started a law firm (Howard & Hargrove) with his brother Charles P.Howard & John R.Hargrove,Sr.(who went on to become a U.S.district judge).In 1964,he became assistant state's attorney in Baltimore and later became the first African-American chief  of the trial,section of the state's attroney's office.Two years later  into the job,Joseph criticized his superiors and Baltimore police for pursuing
harser penalties against alleged African-American raptist when the victims were white than the penalties they sought when the victims were African American.Joseph
was ordered to issue a report to back up his allegations.In the report he cited that 30 African-Americans men had been executed for raping white women,no one,African-American or white,had been executed for raping African-American woman.In 1967,he became assistant city solicitor.

Prior to 1968,vacancies on the Supreme Bench of  Baltimore City were filled by the
Governor of  Maryland,with white males and usually confirmed by the voters of Baltimore.In 1968,81 of the 82 judges on Maryland's appellate and circuit courts were white males.Maryland governors had been slow to appoint African American to the bench,even through the city was majority African American.Joseph challenged the system and ran for judge without the blessings of the governor.He won 8,000 votes over his nearest competitor,and became the first African American to run for
and win a seat on that bench.As a judge,he challenged the racial practice of supreme
bench and helped racially diversity the offices and employ minorities at the circuit
court as well.He served on the supreme bench until May 22,1979,when he was named
by President Jimmy Carter to be the first African-American to the U.S. District Court for the District Court of  Maryland,a new seat created by 92 sat.He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 4,1979,and receive his commission on October 5,1979.Assumed  senior status on November 15,1991.

In 1992,after Joseph was diagnosed with Shy-Drager Syndrone,a progressive failure of the automatic nervous system,he took a reduced case load.Joseph died in Pikesville,Maryland.His funeral was held the following Friday at the Union Baptist Church in Baltimore.

"Andre-Pinto-Reboucas" [January 13,1838-April 9,1898]

Was a Brazilian military engineer,
abolitionist and inventor,son of Antonio Pereira Reboucas (1798-1880) and Caroline Pinto Reboucas.Lawyer,member of Parliament (representing the state of  Bahia) and an adviser to
Pedro II of Brazil,his daddy,was the son of a manumitted slave and
a Portuguese tailor.His brothers
Antonio Pereira Reboucas Filho and Jose Reboucas were also engineers.

Despite racial prejudice,racial prejudice,his daddy,a mulatto,
was an important and prestigious man at the time.Self-taught to read and write,he had been granted the right to practice law throughout the country represented  Bahia in the House of  Representatives on a range of legislature,was secretary of the Provincial  Governship  of Sergipe,advisior to the Empire, and had receive the title of Knight of the imperial order of the cross in 1823.

"John-Morton-Finney" {June 25,1889-January }

He was a Buffalo soldier who fought in World War 1,earned 11 degrees,and practiced law right up until he was 106.John was believed to be the longest practicing attorney in the United States,practiced law for 75 years.-- He earned a degree from Butler University when he was 75.

He was born in Uniontown Kentucky.He was the son of a slavery survivor whose ancestors migrated from Ethiopia to Nigeria.He grew up in a family of seven children where poetry readings and political debates were evening activities.His mama died when he was 14 so his daddy sent the children to live on their granddaddy's farm in Missouri.

After the war,he earned degrees in math,French,and history.At Lincoln College,he heard a new French teacher,Pauline Ray,with a degree from Cornell University.John signed into her class and won her heart.They were married and moved to Indianapolis in 1922.He taught junior high math and social studies at Indianapolis Public Schools #27 and #17 where he also serve as principal.In 1927,he was  hired as one of the first teachers at all-African-American Crispus Attucks High School (CAHS).

He serve as head of the foreign language department-teaching Greek,Latin,German,Spanish and French.Students also learned life skills such as how to set goals,plan their futures,and take responsibility for their actions.They learned that racism is an unacceptable excuse for failure and developed a deep respect for their history and culture.According to his daughter,Gloria,he invited presidents from African American colleges to speak to the students.He made it possible for Crispus Attucks students to obtain scholarships to attend college.Students had a view of going someplace beyond CAHS.

During WW II,he was cited for directing the rationing tickets program for African American in Indianapolis.Various merchadaise such as meats,sugar,butter,gas,and rubber were strictly rationed.Many items were especially scare but rationing guaranteed that everyone equal amounts of raw materials.

John's love for learning remained constant.While at CAHS,he earned master's degrees in French and education from Indiana Uiversity.In 1935,he he earned his first law degree and four more after that.During his life,he read three of four books at a time.Twenty books would be stacked beside his bed with five sharpened pencils and the TV turned to the news.Durning an interview with Wallace Terry on 100 birthday John said "I can get interested in so many things.There is so much to know in this world.He credited his granddaddy with giving him advice that served him well.He believed that moderation in all matters is the key to a long life.He practiced law until he was 106 and he died on January 28,1998 at the age of 108.John received a full honor military memorial service and was laid to rest at Crown Hill Cemetery.