Higginbotham, A. Leon Jr.

Impact on the world

Despite attending segregated public schools as a child, Higginbotham went on to a distinguished career as a federal judge and became a leading legal scholar on the history of race and the American legal system.

Life & background

Higginbotham attended segregated public schools in New Jersey before his mother fought to have him integrated into a previously all-white high school, where he graduated at just 16. He went on to a distinguished career as a federal appellate judge and became one of the nation's leading legal scholars writing on the history of race within the American legal system.

Sources

1. American Bar Association Journal (First Black federal judges carved a civil rights path); Federal Judicial Center biographical directory; U.S. District Court, E.D. Pa. court history (Judge Harvey Bartle III)