Theodore R. Newman Jr. (July 5, 1934 – January 6, 2023) was an American judge of the

District of Columbia Court of Appeals The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is the highest court of the District of Columbia, in the United States. Established in 1970, it is equivalent to a state supreme court, except that its authority is derived from the United States Congr ...

. He served as the first

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

chief judge of the court.

Biography

Newman was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and raised in

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...

, where his father was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

minister and his mother was a schoolteacher. He graduated from the Mount Herman School for Boys, a boarding school in Massachusetts, in 1951. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in philosophy from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1955 and a law degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1958. After law school he spent three years as a judge advocate in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

stationed in France. On his return to the United States, he moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, to work at the

United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion Religion is usually d ...

from September 1961 to August 1962. He then entered private practice as an associate at Houston, Bryant & Gardner, a prominent law firm founded by Charles Hamilton Houston and Wendell P. Gardner Sr., where his colleagues included future federal judge

William B. Bryant William Benson Bryant (September 18, 1911 – November 13, 2005) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and served as the first African-American Chief Judge ...

. In 1970, Newman was named to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and in 1976 he was elevated to the D.C. Court of Appeals and designated its new chief judge. He was the first black chief judge of any state-level court system in the United States. At the time, there were fewer than a dozen black judges serving on state appeals courts. In 1979, '' Ebony'' named Newman among the one hundred most influential black Americans. Newman's first term as chief judge expired in 1980, and his attempt to be redesignated for a second term was controversial. The more conservative wing of the court, led by Judge

Frank Q. Nebeker Frank Quill Nebeker (April 23, 1930 – January 4, 2024) was an American jurist who served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Life and career Born in Utah, Nebek ...

, opposed Newman's reappointment, arguing that his behavior at oral argument, at meetings, and outside of court was unbecoming of a judge. In the end Newman was reappointed by the

District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission The District of Columbia Judicial Nominating Commission is the judicial nominating commission of Washington D.C. It selects potential judges for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Duties ...

for a second four-year term and did not seek reappointment in 1984. In 1991 Newman took senior status, and in 2016 he retired from the court. His former law clerks include law professors Angela J. Davis and Wendy Gordon. Newman died on January 6, 2023, at the age of 88.Theodore Newman Jr., first Black chief judge on D.C. Court of Appeals, dies at 88

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Theodore R. Jr. 1934 births 2023 deaths 20th-century African-American lawyers 20th-century American judges 21st-century African-American lawyers 21st-century American judges African-American judges Brown University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judges of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Lawyers from Birmingham, Alabama United States Department of Justice lawyers