Home / Full timeline / William Hastie becomes the first Black federal judge in the U.S.
William Hastie becomes the first Black federal judge in the U.S.
1937 (Mar 26)
William H. Hastie was confirmed as the first Black federal judge. Hastie had entered government service as an assistant solicitor in the Department of the Interior in the early part of the New Deal era. His judicial appointment was supported by the NAACP and influential whites at Harvard Law School. His nomination was approved over the vigorous opposition of Southern senators who labeled him a leftist, primarily because of his support of civil rights activities. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to his unofficial Black cabinet as an aide to the Secretary of War. But in 1941, Hastie resigned in protest of the War Department's failure to act against segregation in the armed services.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.