This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are other distinctions such as the first minority men in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in Tennessee's history

Lawyers

*First African American male to argue a case before the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee. Roger A. Page is the Chief Justice. Unlike other states, in which the state attorney general is directly elected or appointed by the governor or state leg ...

William F. Yardley William Francis Yardley (January 8, 1844 – May 20, 1924) was an American attorney, politician and civil rights advocate, operating primarily out of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century. He was Tennessee's first African-American gu ...

(1872) in 1883 *First African American male (actively practice):

Fredrick McGhee Fredrick Lamar McGhee (October 28, 1861 – September 9, 1912) was an African-American criminal defense lawyer and civil rights activist. Born a slave in Mississippi, McGhee would become the first black attorney in Minnesota. Alongside close fr ...

(1885)

State judges

* First African American male (since

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

): Benjamin Hooks (1948) in 1965 * First African American male (General Sessions Court): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1969 * First African American male (city court): S.A. Wilbun in 1973 (1973) * First African American male (circuit court) S.A. Wilbun in 1978 (1978) * First African American male (criminal court): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1978 * First African American male (

): George H. Brown in 1980 * First African American male (Chief Justice;

): A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) in 1994 * First African American male (

Tennessee Court of Appeals The Tennessee Court of Appeals (in case citation, Tenn. Ct. App.) was created in 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly as an intermediate appellate court to hear appeals in civil cases from the Tennessee state trial courts. Appeals of judgme ...

): Richard Dinkins in 2008 * First Hispanic American male (trial court judge): Hector Sanchez in 2022

Federal judges

*First African American male ( U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee):

Odell Horton Odell Horton (May 13, 1929 – February 22, 2006) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Education and career Born in Bolivar, Tennessee, Horton served in the United State ...

(1956) in 1980 *First African American male (

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (in case citations, E.D. Tenn.) is the federal court in the Sixth Circuit whose jurisdiction covers most of East Tennessee and a portion of Middle Tennessee. The court has ju ...

): Curtis L. Collier in 1995 *First African American male ( U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee): William Joseph Haynes Jr. (1973) in 1999 *First Green American male (Judge and Chief Judge):

): Thomas A. Varlan in 2003 and 2012 respectively

Assistant United States Attorney

*First African American male:

(1956)

Assistant District Attorney

* First African American males (since

): Arthur T. Bennett and A. A. Birch Jr. (1956) respectively around 1965-1966

Faculty

* First African American male law professor: Joseph H. Dismukes in 1883

Firsts in local history

* Prince Albert Ewing: First African American male lawyer in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee * A. A. Birch Jr. (1956): First African American male to serve as a prosecutor and judge in Davidson County, Tennessee *Martesha L. Johnson (2018) First African American to serve as a Chief Public Defender for Metro Nashville, Davidson County and second woman. *Rheubin Taylor: First African American male to serve as the County Attorney for Hamilton County, Tennessee (1994) *Gerald Webb: First African American male judge in Hamilton County, Tennessee (2019) *William Francis Yardley (1872): First African American male lawyer in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee *Charles E. Bush: First African American male judge in

Montgomery County, Tennessee Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 220,069. The county seat (and only incorporated municipality) is Clarksville. The county was created in 1796. Montgomery Count ...

(1995) *General Quarles Boyd: First African American male lawyer in Clarksville,

*John McClellan Sr.: First African American male to serve as the Justice of the Peace in

Putnam County, Tennessee Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,854. Its county seat is Cookeville. Putnam County is part of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Putnam Coun ...

(1972) *Thomas Frank Cassels: First African American male to serve as the Attorney General Pro Tem of Shelby County Criminal Court (c. 1880s) * Josiah T. Settle (1875): First African American male to serve as a prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee * Ural B. Adams: First African American male to serve as the Public Defender of Shelby County, Tennessee (1979) * Floyd Peete: First African American male to serve as the Chancellor of Shelby County Chancery Court (1990) * Tarik Sugarmon: First African American male to serve as a juvenile court judge in Shelby County, Tennessee (2022) * S.A. Wilbun: First African American male to serve as the Assistant City Attorney in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

(1964) Shelby_County,_Tennessee.html" ;"title="nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee">nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee* John George Morris: First Greek American lawyer in

Shelby_County,_Tennessee.html" ;"title="nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee">nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee* Joe Brown: First African American male prosecutor in

Shelby_County,_Tennessee.html" ;"title="nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee">nowiki/> Shelby County, Tennessee

References

{{Reflist Minority, Tennessee, first Minority, Tennessee, first Legal history of Tennessee Lists of people from Tennessee Tennessee lawyers Lists of firsts