Francis Muir Scarlett (June 9, 1891 – November 18, 1971) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (in case citations, S.D. Ga.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appeal ...

Education and career

Born in Brunswick,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, Scarlett received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

University of Georgia School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law sc ...

in 1913. He was in private practice in Brunswick from 1913 to 1946. He was solicitor for the City Court of Brunswick from 1919 to 1929.

Federal judicial service

On January 24, 1946, Scarlett was nominated by President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Archibald Battle Lovett. Scarlett was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on February 13, 1946, and received his commission on February 14, 1946. Scarlett was among the most staunchly segregationist district court judges during the

Civil Rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. After ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'', Scarlett attempted to relitigate because he believed that black people were inherently inferior, so that separate schools was a fair classification of students. In Scarlett’s view, separate school systems were thus fair because both races would be harmed by His persistent efforts to thwart black plaintiffs in

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

Glynn Glynn () is a small village and civil parish in the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies a short distance south of Larne, on the shore of Larne Lough. Glynn had a population of 2,027 people in th ...

and Richmond Counties would ensure that no integration took place there until long after it had occurred in most of the Deep South. When in 1963 Scarlett found that the Chatham County schools were segregated, he allowed a group of white students to intervene and present evidence that black students could not work academically nearly as well as white students. In Scarlett’s view, black children’s sense of rejection by white children was increased by intermixture, and the increase in sense of rejection was in his view proportional to the amount of interaction between white and black children. Scarlett ordered students to be assigned according to intelligence tests, and teachers to be assigned and paid according to their own intelligence. Elbert Parr Tuttle, one of the “

Fifth Circuit Four The "Fifth Circuit Four" (or simply "The Four") were four judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who, during the late 1950s, became known for a series of decisions (which continued into the late 1960s) crucial in advanci ...

”, referred to Judge Scarlett as Scarlett would be reversed repeatedly by the Fifth Circuit during the middle 1960s, and by the middle of 1968 he was under pressure to take senior status as steps toward desegregation were finally taken. Scarlett assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on August 2, 1968, serving in that capacity until his death on November 18, 1971.

Honor

The Frank M. Scarlett Federal Building in Brunswick is named for him.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlett, Francis Muir 1891 births 1971 deaths University of Georgia School of Law alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia United States district court judges appointed by Harry S. Truman 20th-century American judges People from Brunswick, Georgia