William H. Hastie

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William H. Hastie, ca.1941

William Henry Hastie (born  November 17, 1904 in Knoxville, Tennessee , †  April 14, 1976 in East Norriton, Pennsylvania ) was an American lawyer and the first judge of African American descent in a federal court in the history of the United States . He served as a federal district judge from 1937 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1949 as governor of the American Virgin Islands and from 1949 to 1971 as a judge at the Federal Court of Appeals for the third district court . In addition, he worked at Howard University from 1939 to 1946 as dean of the law school.

Life

William H. Hastie was born in 1904 in Knoxville , Tennessee, to an administrative clerk and a teacher, and had both African American and Native American ancestors on his mother's side . The family moved to Washington, DC in 1916 due to a transfer of his father to Washington, DC He graduated from Amherst College , which he graduated with an AB in 1925 , and then worked as a teacher in New Jersey for two years . From 1927 to 1930 he studied law at Harvard University , where he also obtained his doctorate in 1933 after a temporary work as a lawyer in a law firm in Washington, DC .

He then taught as a professor at the law school of Howard University in Washington, DC, one of the historically black colleges and universities . There Thurgood Marshall was one of his students, who later became the first African American to be appointed judge at the Supreme Court of the United States . William H. Hastie worked during this time as well as a judicial officer in the United States Department of the Interior and in different courts as a lawyer in civil rights cases, as well as legal counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People .

William H. Hastie (right) with Harry S. Truman, 1948

As part of his work for the Ministry of the Interior, he worked together with other employees, among other things, to work out the basics of a civil administration for the US Virgin Islands , for which responsibility had been transferred from the United States Navy to the Ministry in 1931 . Following the passage of a law to that effect in 1936, he was appointed judge of the U.S. Virgin Islands Federal District Court the following year, making him the first federal judge of African American descent in the history of the United States.

He retired from this position in 1939 to become Dean of Law School at Howard University . In 1946, after being appointed by then US President Harry S. Truman, he took over the office of Governor of the US Virgin Islands. Three years later he was appointed judge at the Federal Court of Appeals for the third district court , also by Harry S. Truman . In this capacity, too, he was the first lawyer of African American descent in American history. He served at this court until 1971, including presiding judge from 1968, and then took part-time retirement. In 1952 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1972 to the American Philosophical Society .

William H. Hastie was married first in 1935 and second marriage from 1945, and in his second marriage father of a son and a daughter. He died in East Norriton , Pennsylvania in 1976 . His estate was donated to the Harvard University Law Library by his children between 1979 and 1981. He is commemorated by the library of the Federal Court of Appeals for the Third District Court in Philadelphia , a park in his native Knoxville and a scholarship program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that has existed since 1973 , through which law students of African American descent receive an LL.M. Studies can qualify for a university career, his name.

literature

  • Hastie, William H. (William Henry Hastie, Jr.). In: Charles W. Carey: African-American Political Leaders. A to Z of African Americans. Facts on File Inc., New York 2004, ISBN 1-43-810780-3 , pp. 122-124
  • Hastie, William Henry (1904-1976). In: Neil A. Wynn: The A to Z of the Roosevelt-Truman Era. Series: Historical Dictionaries of US Historical Eras. Volume 10 (also series The A to Z Guide Series. Volume 103). Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2009, ISBN 0-81-087053-3 , p. 193
  • Tyson D. King-Meadows: Hastie, William Henry (1904-1976). In: John R. Vile: Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia. Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2003, ISBN 1-57-607989-9 , pp. 351-360

Further publications

  • Gilbert Ware: William Hastie: Grace under Pressure. Oxford University Press, New York 1984, ISBN 0-19-503298-5
  • Phillip McGuire: He, too, Spoke for Democracy: Judge Hastie, World War II, and the Black Soldier. Series: Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies. Volume 110. Greenwood Press, New York 1988, ISBN 0-31-326115-6

Web links

Commons : William H. Hastie  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: William H. Hastie. American Philosophical Society, accessed September 23, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Hastie, William H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hastie, William Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, United States Supreme Court Justice
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Knoxville , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1976
Place of death East Norriton , Pennsylvania