Promises Kept
Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, Vol. 6, pp. 11-16, July 2001
6 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2010
Date Written: July 2001
Abstract
This short article provides a retrospective look at the career of Judge A. Leon Higginbotham.
In 1993, after retiring at age 65 from the federal bench where he had served for 29 years, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. declared that he was now free to return to civil rights advocacy-an arena from which he had been absent for three decades. Before his 1962 appointment by President John F Kennedy to the Federal Trade Commission, Higginbotham served as president of the Philadelphia
Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During his service there, Higginbotham was involved with issues concerning the desegregation of public schools and public accommodations, employment discrimination legislation, and voting rights. Now, some 32 years later. he could once again enter the political arena and focus on the cause that had been so important to him throughout his professional career-racial equality.
Keywords: Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, racial discrimination, civil rights, NAACP, desegregation, public schools, employment discrimination, public accommodations, voting rights, racial equality,
JEL Classification: K19, K39, K49, J71, J78, I29,
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
