William T. Coleman was a pioneering legal figure who argued major cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of civil rights. The longtime lawyer and former director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund died last Friday at his Alexandria, Va. Home. He was the oldest living former U.S. Cabinet member.
William Thaddeus Coleman was born July 7, 1920 in Philadelphia. Coleman’s middle-class upbringing was not without its barriers. In his 2010 memoir Counsel for the Situation: Shaping the Law to Realize America’s Promise he recalled an incident as just one of seven Black students at Germantown High School in Philadelphia. His 10th grade English teacher told him that he’d “make a fine chauffeur” after Coleman delivered a speech in his honors class. After he cursed at the teacher, Coleman who was then suspended.
After his graduation, Coleman proved that teacher very wrong. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, then began his legal career in 1947 as a law clerk to Judge Herbert F. Goodrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. The following year, Coleman was named the first Black law clerk for the Supreme Court. (READ MORE)
