List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Virginia
This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Virginia. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are men who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.
Firsts in Virginia's history
[edit]Lawyers
[edit]- First Jewish American male: James M. Wolfe (1821)[1][2]
- First African American male: Wathal G. Wynn (1871)[3][4][5]
- First African American male (practice before the Supreme Court of Virginia): Giles Beecher Jackson in 1887[6]
Law Clerk
[edit]- First African American male to clerk for the Supreme Court of Virginia: Jerrauld Jones (1980)[7]
State judges
[edit]- First African American male (elected): Daniel M. Norton in 1866[8][9]
- First African American male (actively serve): James A. Fields in 1879[10][11][12]
- First African American male (since Reconstruction Era): Willard Douglas (1949) in 1974[13][14][15]
- First African American male (Virginia Supreme Court): John Charles Thomas (1975) in 1983[16][17]
- First African American male (Virginia Court of Appeals): James W. Benton in 1984[8]
- First Native American (Cherokee) male: Charles Riley Cloud in 1986[18]
- First African American male (Chief Justice; Virginia Supreme Court): Leroy R. Hassell Sr. (1980) in 2003[19]
- First Asian American male (Vietnamese descent): John M. Tran (1984) in 2013[20][21]
- First openly gay male: Tracy Thorne-Begland in 2013[22]
- First Indian American male: Rupen Shah in 2017[23]
Federal judges
[edit]- First African American male: James R. Spencer (1974) in 1986[24][25][26]
- First African American male (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit): Roger Gregory (1978) in 2000[27]
- First African American male (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia): Ivan D. Davis in 2008[28]
- First African American male (Chief Justice; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit): Roger Gregory (1978) in 2016[27]
- First (African American) openly LGBT male (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia): Jamar K. Walker in 2023[29]
Attorney General of Virginia
[edit]- First Latino American male: Jason Miyares in 2022[30]
Assistant United States Attorney
[edit]- First African American male (Eastern District of Virginia): William T. Mason, Jr.[31]
Political Office
[edit]- First Indian American (Congressman-elect): Suhas Subramanyam in 2024[32]
Bar associations
[edit]- First Jewish American male (Virginia State Bar): Michael A. Glasser in 2014[33]
- First African American male (Virginia Bar Association): Victor Cardwell in 2022[34]
Firsts in local history
[edit]- Eugene Butler:[35] First African American male to serve as a Judge of the 24th Judicial District (2023) [Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, Lynchburg (city) and Nelson Counties, Virginia]
- Jesse Pollard:[36] First African American male judge in Arlington County, Virginia
- Daniel T. Lopez:[37] First Latino American male judge in Arlington County, Virginia (2019)
- Gregory Swanson:[38] First African American male admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law (1950)
- John Merchant:[39] First African American male to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law (1958)
- Larry S. Gibson (1967):[40] First African American male to serve as a law professor for the University of Virginia School of Law (1972)
- James Ghee (c. 1970s):[41] First African American male lawyer in Farmville, Cumberland County and Prince Edward County, Virginia
- Marcus Doyle Williams:[42] First African American male judge in Fairfax County, Virginia (1987)
- Thomas Calhoun "T.C." Walker:[43][44] First African American male lawyer in Gloucester County, Virginia
- Garland P. Faison:[45] First African American male to serve as a Justice of the Peace in Greensville County, Virginia
- Wilford Taylor, Jr.:[46] First African American male judge in Hampton, Virginia
- Joseph (J.) Thomas Newsome:[47] First African American male lawyer from post-Civil War Newport News, Virginia to practice before the Supreme Court of Virginia
- David F. Pugh:[48] First African American male judge in Newport News, Virginia (1990)
- R.G.L. Paige:[49] Reputed to be the first African American male lawyer in Norfolk, Virginia
- Lester V. Moore:[50] First African American male judge in Norfolk, Virginia (c. 1975)
- Carlos Flores Laboy:[51] First Latino American male judge in Prince William County, Virginia (2020)
- Herman Benn (1958):[52] First African American male lawyer, Assistant City Attorney (1967), and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney (1976) in Richmond, Virginia
- T.D. Taylor (c. 1969):[53] First African American male lawyer in Warsaw, Richmond County, Virginia
- Onzlee Ware:[54] First African American male to serve as a Judge of the Roanoke Circuit Court (2020)
- Kevin Duffan:[55] First African American male to serve as a circuit judge in Virginia Beach, Virginia (2020)
- James A. Fields:[11][12] First African American male lawyer and judicial officer in Warwick County, Virginia
- Albert Durant Sr.:[56] First African American male to serve as a Justice of the Peace and magistrate in Williamsburg, Virginia [Williamsburg-James City County, Virginia]
- William Stone:[57] First African American male judge in Williamsburg-James City County, Virginia
- A. Benjamin Spencer:[58] First African American male to serve as the Dean of the College of William & Mary (2020)
See also
[edit]Other topics of interest
[edit]- List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
- List of first women lawyers and judges in Virginia
References
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- ^ Harrison, Victoria L. (2018-10-22). Fight Like a Tiger: Conway Barbour and the Challenges of the Black Middle Class in Nineteenth-Century America. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-3677-7.
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- ^ a b Smith, J. Clay Jr. (1999-01-01). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216857.
- ^ "Historical Paintings in Amherst County - Amherst County Guidebook". Amherst County Guidebook. 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
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- ^ "Willard H. Douglas, Jr., elected judge". Virginia Appellate Court History. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
- ^ Franklin, Ben a; Times, Special to the New York (1983-04-12). "First Black Named to Virginia Court". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
- ^ "Former Virginia Supreme Court Justice John Charles Thomas to speak at Convocation | William & Mary". www.wm.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
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{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Jackman, Tom (2013-04-05). "McLean's John Tran named first Asian-American judge in Va. history". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
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- ^ Upon Spencer's appointment as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1986
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