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JUDGE FRANK M. JOHNSON JR. 
Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. was one of the most important figures of the civil rights struggle in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born the son of the local postmaster and republican official in Delmar, Alabama on October 30, 1918. He fell in love with the law while watching trials at the local courthouse where his father was a probate judge.
He attended Birmingham Southern University on a football scholarship for less than a semester, married Ruth Jenkins in 1938, and then in 1939, he enrolled at the University of Alabama, graduating four years later, near the top of his class. After fighting in World War II where he won a bronze star, he returned to Alabama to practice law in Jasper. He was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama where he prosecuted Alabama's first successful peonage case against two white brothers who had paid the fines of two black men who had been convicted of minor crimes. The men were then forced to work on the their farm to pay off the debt to the brothers. One of the men died after being horse whipped following an escape attempt. In 1955, he moved to Montgomery, where he became the youngest federal judge in the country. Little more than a month later, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. White supremacists made many attempts at intimidation, which included death threats, cross burnings and his mother's house being bombed (in the belief that the house was his). For 15 years, he was given around the clock protection by U.S. Marshals. He served for 24 years as a trial judge. During this time, he issued orders desegregating Alabama's schools and a number of other facilities, he struck down barriers to voting and serving on juries as well as breaking new ground on sexual discrimination and First Amendment issues. He also allowed the Selma to Montgomery Voters Rights March to take place. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described him as "the man who gave true meaning to the word 'justice.'"., whereas Governor George Wallace once said that he needed a "a barbed-wire enema." Although many of his rulings contributed in toward the civil rights movement, he never considered that he was making a social change, merely that he was ruling on the law. He was nominated by Jimmy Carter to become director of the FBI, but he had to withdraw his name from consideration because of health problems. However, he was appointed by President Carter to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Johnson ended his career on the new Eleventh Circuit of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia after Congress split the Fifth Circuit. In the end, he received not only the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and recognition by Congress in naming the federal courthouse in Montgomery after him; he also was rewarded with acceptance into the Alabama Hall of Fame and a resolution honoring him from the state legislature, which 25 years earlier had called for his impeachment. He died in Montgomery in 1999. Links To Other Judge Frank M. Johnson Internet Resources: The Third Branch - Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. 1918-1999. The African American Registry - Frank M. Johnson was a fearless judge for civil rights. The Anti-Defamation League mourns the passing of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. The University of Alabama Law School -In Memoriam: Frank M. Johnson, Jr. We Shall Overcome - Frank M. Johnson, Jr. (1918- ), Federal Judge. SIGN UP TO OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER If you would like us to keep you updated with changes and improvements to thatsalabama.com, please enter your email address here: If you would like to support thatsalabama.com with a donation via paypal, please click on this button: |
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