Leander J. Shaw, Jr.

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Leander J. Shaw, Jr. (born September 6, 1930 in Salem , Virginia , † December 14, 2015 in Tallahassee , Florida ) was an African-American lawyer in the United States . 1983 to 2003 he was a judge, from 1990 to 1992 Chief Justice (presiding judge) at the Supreme Court of Florida (Supreme Court of Florida).

Life

Leander J. Shaw, Jr. was born in Salem, Virginia in 1930, the son of Leander J. Shaw, Sr., principal of the Lylburn Downing School in Lexington , Virginia, and later dean of the graduate school at Florida A&M University and his wife Margaret, a teacher at the same school. Leander first attended Lylburn Downing School in Lexington, then went to West Virginia State College, in Institute, West Virginia , where he graduated with a BA in 1952 . During the Korean War , he served as an artillery officer in the United States Army .

After finishing his service, Shaw initially toyed with the idea of ​​studying medicine, but then turned to law because he believed that as a lawyer he could do more socially. "I thought when I got out of the service, this country was being changed by lawyers, especially in civil rights ... I was getting into medicine before that, but lawyers were changing this country." ("When I finished my service in the US Armed Forces, I believed that this country was being changed by lawyers, particularly with regard to civil rights. ... Before that, I had intended to study medicine, but it was lawyers who made this country . changed ") , Shaw said in an interview with the Florida bar News in 2002. His models were the US Supreme Court Justices (judge of the Supreme Court of the United States ) Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan : " Visionaries. . . able to see where the country was heading. " ( "Visionaries ... who were able to see in which direction the land was moving" ).

In 1957 Shaw graduated from Howard University (School of Law), Washington, DC with a law degree . That same year, he moved to Tallahassee, Florida after accepting a professorship in the Law School of Florida A&M University . In 1960 he was admitted to the Florida Bar and subsequently opened a private law firm in Jacksonville , Florida. The two and a half day bar exam was held at the DuPont Plaza Hotel in Miami . The desegregation ( racial segregation ) was still a long way off, and Shaw was not allowed to eat or stay at this "white only" hotel . Upon admission to the bar, Shaw was one of no more than twenty-five black attorneys practicing in Florida.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florida Courier December 17, 2015: Leander J. Shaw Jr. dies
  2. ↑ a b Naples Herald December 19, 2015: Remembering Chief Justice Leander Shaw, Jr.
  3. ↑ Washington and Lee University: Leander J. Shaw Jr.
  4. ↑ United States Department of Interior - National Register of Historic Places Inventory / Nomination: Lylburn Downing School, Lexington, Virginia ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dhr.virginia.gov
  5. ^ The Florida Bar News Jan. 1, 2002: Meet the Court: Justice Leander J. Shaw, Jr.
  6. ↑ a b Law.com December 14, 2015: Leander Shaw, Florida's First African-American Chief Justice, this at 85
  7. ^ The Florida Bar News December 1, 2002: Justice Shaw's career comes to a close
personal data
SURNAME Shaw, Leander J., Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION African American lawyer in the United States
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Salem , Virginia USA
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 2015
Place of death Tallahassee , Florida , USA