Uriah W. Clemon (born April 9, 1943) is an

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

attorney in private practice and a former

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 Northern District of Alabama The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (in case citations, N.D. Ala.) 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 a ...

. He was among the first ten African-American lawyers admitted to the Alabama bar. In 1974 he was one of the first two African Americans elected to the

Alabama Senate The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, with each district con ...

since Reconstruction.

Education and career

Born in

Fairfield, Alabama Fairfield is a city in western Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Birmingham metropolitan area and is located southeast of Pleasant Grove. The population was 10,000 at the 2020 census. Fairfield is home to Miles C ...

, to

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...

parents, Clemon received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from the historically black Miles College in 1965. Unable to attend the still segregated

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

, he received a payment from the State of Alabama to attend

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He received a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in 1968. He worked in the New York office of the

NAACP Legal Defense Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Although LDF ca ...

from 1968 to 1969 and was in private practice of law in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Alabama from 1969 to 1980. He was a member of the

from 1975 to 1980 as a Democrat.

Notable service

Clemon practiced civil rights law for twelve years. For example, he handled school desegregation cases throughout North Alabama. In ''Singleton vs. Jackson School District'', a Federal Appeals Court approved, for the first time, a desegregation order that set out numeric ratios for black and white children in schools and required school officials to regularly report to the court their progress toward integration. That case set a precedent and standard for school desegregation cases nationally."The Resegregation of Jefferson County"
''New York Times'' Magazine, 06 September 2017 In 1969, Clemon sued coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in order to desegregate the University of Alabama's football team. He brought employment discrimination cases against some of the largest employers in Alabama. In 1974, Clemon was one of the first two black people elected to the

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 Union ...

. As chairman of the Rules Committee and later the Judiciary Committee, he fought against Governor

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

's exclusion of black citizens from state boards and agencies. He also fought against reinstatement of the death penalty after the state rewrote its law on capital sentencing. Wallace approved reprieves and postponements for many men on death row, as he disapproved of the death penalty.

Federal judicial service

Clemon was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

on January 10, 1980, to the

, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. Clemon's nomination to the federal judiciary was opposed by

Roy Moore Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judic ...

, who claimed that Clemon was "soft on crime". However, in 1984, Moore told Clemon "he was sorry that he had done it, it was wrong and he had heard good things about

lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

" Then he asked him to share client referrals. 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 26, 1980, and received his commission on June 30, 1980. The appointment made him Alabama's first Black federal judge. He served as Chief Judge from 1999 to 2006. His service was terminated on January 31, 2009, due to his retirement.

Notable cases

Clemon was the trial judge in the '' Ledbetter v. Goodyear'' case and in several multi-district cases.

Post judicial service

Following his retirement from the federal bench, Clemon retired to the private practice of law in Birmingham and remains active as of June 2018. He continues to fight segregation in public schools. In 2018, he successfully litigated with the

to stop the racially discriminatory plan of the

Gardendale, Alabama Gardendale is a city in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States and a northern suburb of Birmingham. The population was 16,044 at the 2020 census. History A large farm settlement near the area today known as Gardendale was settled around 18 ...

to create a new, mostly white school system by seceding from the Jefferson County school system . In February 2022, Clemon wrote to president

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

urging him not to appoint Judge

Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson (née Brown; ; born September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer and jurist who is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination, was nominated ...

to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

References

Sources

External links

Oral History Interview with U. W. Clemon
''Oral Histories of the American South'', University of North Carolina, Documenting the American South {{DEFAULTSORT:Clemon, Uriah W. 1943 births Living people Missing middle or first names Columbia Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter Democratic Party Alabama state senators African-American judges Miles College alumni NAACP activists People associated with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund People from Fairfield, Alabama Lawyers from Birmingham, Alabama 20th-century members of the Alabama Legislature