David Welford Williams (March 20, 1910 – May 6, 2000) was an American attorney and

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a United States district court, federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in South ...

, the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

federal judge west of the Mississippi. He is best known for his work in the abolition of restrictive covenants and for overseeing 4,000 criminal cases that stemmed from the 1965 Watts riots.

Early life and career

Williams was born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, but grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 1934 and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

USC Gould School of Law The University of Southern California Gould School of Law located in Los Angeles, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Or ...

in 1937, and was admitted to the California bar in 1937. He was in private practice in Los Angeles from 1937 to 1955. Williams was a founding member of the John M. Langston Bar Association, a black lawyers' group which was organized in response to the Los Angeles County Bar Association's refusal to admit blacks members.Copage, Eric V. "David Williams, 90, Pioneering Black Judge." ''New York Times'', May 12, 2000.
/ref>

Legal service

As a lawyer in the 1940s, he was one of several black attorneys who worked with

Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...

, then head of the legal defense arm of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, to fight the

restrictive covenants A covenant, in its most general and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a seal. Be ...

that barred African-Americans and other minorities from residence in many parts of Los Angeles and many other American cities. The covenants were declared unconstitutional in 1948. Williams himself was able to benefit from this decision by purchasing a lot in one of Los Angeles’ most exclusive areas; however, he negotiated this purchase over the telephone for fear that he would not be able to obtain the land if the seller and neighbors realized he was black.Woo, Elaine, "David Williams Dies." ''Los Angeles Times'', May 10, 2000.
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State judicial service

Williams was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court from 1956, and served there until 1962. He was a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1962 to 1969. As a judge, Williams developed a reputation as a tough sentencer. Following the 1965

Watts riots The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. The riots were motivated by anger at the racist and abus ...

, Williams volunteered to preside over about 4,000 of the resulting criminal cases. Taking on these difficult cases in an emotionally charged environment won him the admiration of many colleagues.

Federal judicial service

A lifelong Republican, Williams was nominated by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

on May 8, 1969, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Peirson Mitchell Hall. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on June 19, 1969, and received his commission on June 20, 1969. He assumed senior status on January 17, 1981. His service terminated on May 6, 2000, due to his death from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in Los Angeles.

Views on mandatory sentencing

Late in his judicial career, Williams took issue with the mandatory sentencing required by California's 1994 "

Three Strikes Law In the United States, habitual offender laws (commonly referred to as three-strikes laws) have been implemented since at least 1952, and are part of the United States Justice Department's Anti-Violence Strategy. These laws require a person who i ...

." “Some of us judges,” he is quoted as saying, “feel we are made to be like robots who cannot decide for themselves.” Ironically, in 1989 he became the first judge in

and the second in the country to impose a mandatory life sentence under a new federal anti-drug law. It was the first time in 35 years as a judge that Williams had ever given a life sentence without possibility of parole."David W. Williams." ''The San Francisco Chronicle'', May 11, 2000.
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, David Welford 1910 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American lawyers African-American judges California state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California Lawyers from Los Angeles Lawyers from Atlanta United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon USC Gould School of Law alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Deaths from pneumonia in California 20th-century African-American lawyers