John Minor Wisdom

John Minor Wisdom (May 17, 1905 – May 15, 1999), one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a Republican from Louisiana, was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the 1950s and 1960s, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (its jurisdiction since October 1, 1981), but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone.

Biography

Early life

John Minor Wisdom was born on May 17, 1905, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and graduated from the prestigious Isidore Newman School there. In 1925, he received an A.B. degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1929, he received an LL.B. from Tulane University Law School.

Career

He was in the United States Army Lieutenant Colonel from 1942 to 1946. He was in private practice of law in New Orleans from 1929 to 1957. He was an Adjunct professor of law, Tulane University, from 1938 to 1957.

John B. Minor

John Barbee Minor (1813–1895) was an American jurist. He practiced law in Virginia and then taught law at the University of Virginia for fifty years. His students achieved eminence in professional or public lives. Some referred to his teaching career as not only the longest but the ablest known to Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, and one declared that “he has exerted, and still indirectly exerts, a wider influence for good upon society in the United States than any man who has lived in this generation.”

Early years

Born in Louisa County, Virginia on June 2, 1813 to Launcelot and Elizabeth Minor, a weakling at sixteen, he began a long, horseback journey through the state as a newspaper agent and collector and then walked to Ohio, where he entered Kenyon College. Two of his classmates there became famous: David Davis became United States Senator, United States Judge, and administered the estate of President Lincoln; and Edwin M. Stanton became Secretary of War under Lincoln. Afterwards Minor walked through Ohio and New York, for health and recreation, and, having reached home, entered the University of Virginia in January 1831, where he was a student for three sessions, “graduating in several schools”, and received the Bachelor of Law degree in 1834, at twenty-one. He later married the daughter of his law instructor Professor John A.G. Davis, in whose home he tutored while pursuing his own studies. He had so overcome his physical weakness that he could endure almost unlimited labor, and developed “an impressive stature and presence.”

John Minor (disambiguation)

John Minor may refer to:

See also