Joseph C. Howard, Sr.

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Honorable Joseph C. Howard, Sr.
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
In office 1979 – 2000
Nominated by	President Jimmy Carter
Associate Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City
In office 1968 – 1979
Nominated by	by popular election
Born	December 9, 1922 Des Moines, Iowa
Died	September 16, 2000 Pikesville, Maryland
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Gwendolyn Mae (London) Howard
Children	Joseph C. Howard, Jr.
Alma mater	University of Iowa, Morgan State College, Drake University Law School
Occupation	Judge, attorney
Profession	legal

Joseph Clemens Howard, Sr. (December 9, 1922 - September 16, 2000) was the first African American to win an election as judge for the Baltimore City Supreme Bench^[1][2] and was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, becoming the first African American to serve on that bench as well.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Law practice 4 Judicial career 5 Death 6 Written works 7 References

[edit] Early life

Howard was born to Charles Preston Howard and Maude L. (Lewis) Howard in Des Moines, Iowa. His father, a friend of civil rights leader Dr. Ralph Bunche, was black, his mother a Native American (Sioux).^[1] His father was a lawyer and one of the original founders of the National Bar Association, an association of African-American attorneys.^[4]

Howard served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. During World War II, he commanded Filipino troops and ran a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain.^[2]

[edit] Education

After his discharge, Howard resumed his education at the University of Iowa and graduated in 1950. Prior to the war, Howard had tried out for and made the football team^[5]; he was the only black player on the team. During a 1944 game against the University of Indiana, his coach yelled out to the Iowa defense: "We gotta stop that nigger", referring to the opposing team's running back.^[6] Howard immediately walked up to his coach and asked him to apologize; he didn't, and Howard quit the team. Later at the Drake University Law School, he became the first African-American student admitted to the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. He earned his law degree in 1955 and was married to Gwendolyn Mae London that same year.

[edit] Law practice

In 1959, after they moved to Baltimore, Maryland, Howard passed the Maryland bar exam and then started a law firm (Howard & Hargrove) with his brother, Charles P. Howard, and John R. Hargrove, Sr. (who also went on to become a U.S. district judge). In 1964, Howard became assistant state's attorney in Baltimore and later became the first African-American chief of the trial section of the state's attorney's office. Two years into the job, Howard criticized his superiors and Baltimore police for pursuing harsher penalties against alleged black rapists when the victims were white than the penalties they sought when the victims were black.^[6] Howard was ordered to issue a report to back up his allegations. In the report he cited that 30 black men had been executed for raping white woman, but no one, black or white, had been executed for raping a black woman.^[1] In 1967 he became assistant city solicitor.^[3]

[edit] Judicial career

Prior to 1968, vacancies on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City were filled by the Governor of Maryland with white males and usually confirmed by the voters of Baltimore. In 1968, 81 of the 82 judges on Maryland's appellate and circuit courts where white males.^[1] Maryland governors had been slow to appoint blacks to the bench, even though the city was majority African American. Howard challenged the system and ran for judge without the blessings of the governor. He won by 8,000 votes over his nearest competitor,^[1] and became the first African-American to run for and win a seat on that bench.^[3] As a judge, he challenged the racial hiring practices of the supreme bench and helped racially diversify the offices and employ minorities at the circuit court as well. He served on the supreme bench until October 1979, when he was named by President Carter to be the first African-American to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

[edit] Death

In 1992, after Howard was diagnosed with Shy-Drager syndrome, a progressive failure of the autonomic nervous system, he took a reduced case load. Howard died on September 16, 2000 in Pikesville, Maryland at the age of 77. His funeral was held the following Friday at the Union Baptist Church in Baltimore.^[7]

[edit] Written works

• "Administration of Rape Cases in the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland" (1968)
• "Why We Organize," Journal of Public Law (1971)
• "Employment Practices in the Administration of Justice Under the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City," (1975)
• "Racial Discrimination in Sentencing," Judicature (1975)

[edit] References