Frank Minis Johnson, Jr.

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As a federal judge in Alabama during the tumultuous civil rights era, Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., earned an outstanding reputation. Serving on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (1955-79) and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits (1979-91), Johnson was a strong, if sometimes cautious, defender of constitutional liberties for all U.S. citizens, regardless of race or social status.

Johnson was one of only a few judges to apply vigorously the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954). He made history in 1956 when he and another judge overturned a Montgomery, Alabama, ordinance requiring segregation on city buses (Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 [M.D. Ala.]). That decision gave the nascent civil rights movement an encouraging victory and helped catapult Martin Luther King, Jr., who had led a boycott of Montgomery buses, to the forefront as a civil rights leader. During the 1970s Johnson issued court orders requiring sweeping changes in Alabama's mental health institutions and prisons. Although his judicial decisions brought death threats to himself and his family from whites who opposed integration, Johnson remained faithful to his convictions regarding individual rights.

Johnson was born October 30, 1918, in Delmar, a town in northern Alabama's Winston County. The county, in which Johnson spent his youth, was a Republican stronghold in an overwhelmingly Democratic state; in fact, it had attempted to remain neutral during the Civil War. Johnson's father, Frank Minis Johnson, Sr., served as one of the few Republicans in the Alabama state legislature. Johnson studied law at the University of Alabama and graduated in the top of his class in 1943 with a bachelor of laws degree. He gained admission to the Alabama bar the following year.

Johnson distinguished himself during World War II while serving as an officer in the U.S. Army. Wounded in the Normandy Invasion, he received numerous decorations, including the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Star. He left the military in 1946 and returned to Alabama. Settling in Jasper, he cofounded a law firm and quickly earned a reputation as an outstanding defense lawyer.

In 1952 Johnson worked as a state manager for the presidential campaign of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. After Eisenhower became president the following year, he rewarded Johnson with the post of U.S. attorney for Alabama's Northern District. In 1955 Eisenhower named Johnson to the U.S. District Court for Alabama's Middle District. At age thirty-seven, Johnson was the country's youngest federal judge. He became the court's chief judge in 1966.

In 1956, shortly after taking his seat on the bench, Johnson became involved in a formative event of the civil rights movement. A year earlier an African American woman named Rosa L. Parks had been arrested for violating a Montgomery ordinance requiring racial segregation on the city's buses. In response the African American community organized a boycott of the Montgomery bus system and nominated King as its leader. In addition, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People challenged the city ordinance in court and eventually appealed the case to the federal district court (Browder). Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's reasoning in Brown, Johnson and Judge Richard T. Rives, members of a three-judge panel, ruled that the Montgomery ordinance violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The ruling was the first of many by Johnson, either alone or as part of a three-judge panel, that eliminated racial segregation in public accommodations such as parks, libraries, bus stations, and airports during the 1950s and 1960s. In many instances Johnson's decisions were the first of their kind, earning him a national reputation as a staunch defender of civil rights.

Johnson's rulings in support of integration often put him at odds with George Wallace, a former law school classmate who served four terms as Alabama's governor (1963-67, 1971-75, 1975-79, and 1983-87). Wallace and the state of Alabama actively opposed the desegregation decrees issued by the federal courts. In response Johnson pioneered the use of injunctions (court orders) to force the desegregation of public schools and to monitor compliance with court orders. Wallace and Johnson also clashed in 1965 over King's Selma-to-Montgomery march for civil rights. After Wallace stopped the march, Johnson issued a court order allowing it to proceed. The march was later credited with sparking passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C.A. §1971). Because of the sweeping effect of his judicial decisions on Alabama society, Johnson was sometimes called the "real" governor of Alabama.

Soon after the Selma march, Johnson tried a celebrated case involving the murder of Viola Liuzzo, a white civil rights worker who had been shot to death while riding in her car with an African American. After an all-white jury acquitted three Ku Klux Klan members of the murder in state court, a federal case against the men was brought in Johnson's court. Johnson skillfully maneuvered to avoid a deadlocked jury, and the trial resulted in the conviction of the Klan members for violation of the woman's civil rights.

Johnson's rulings on voting rights cleared the way for African Americans to vote on an equal basis with whites. In several decisions during the 1960s, Johnson developed the "freeze" doctrine, by which African Americans were allowed to vote as long as their qualifications matched those of the least qualified white. The doctrine was later incorporated into the Voting Rights Act. In addition, Johnson outlawed the poll tax and issued the first court order requiring equitable apportionment of legislative seats. Johnson also struck down a state law barring blacks and women from juries, required that court-appointed lawyers be paid, ordered significant changes in Alabama's property tax system, and desegregated the state trooper force.

Johnson's pro-civil rights decisions made him many enemies. Opponents burned crosses on the lawn of his Montgomery home, firebombed his mother's house, and sent hate mail by the bagful. Many leading Montgomery residents ostracized Johnson and his family.

After the civil rights era came to an end in the late 1960s, Johnson continued to issue decisions that had a broad and reforming effect on Alabama society. Just as he had done with school desegregation, Johnson used the judicial injunction as an instrument of social reform. He issued injunctions to remedy inhumane conditions in mental hospitals (Wyatt v. Stickney, 334 F. Supp. 1341 [M.D. Ala. 1971]) and prisons (Newman v. Alabama, 349 F. Supp. 278 [M.D. Ala. 1972]; Pugh v. Locke, 406 F. Supp. 318 [M.D. Ala. 1976]). In both of these instances, Johnson established a human rights committee to implement and monitor his orders.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter named Johnson director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but a heart condition prevented Johnson from taking the job. Surgery improved Johnson's health, and he remained on the federal bench. In 1979 Carter appointed Johnson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Judicial Circuit; in 1981 redistricting made him part of the Eleventh Circuit. In one notable case from his tenure on the Eleventh Circuit court, Hardwick v. Bowers, 760 F.2d 1202 (11th Cir. 1985), Johnson wrote an opinion declaring that a Georgia sodomy statute (Georgia Code. Ann. §16-6-2 [1984]) violated constitutional rights. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision (Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S. Ct. 2841, 92 L. Ed. 2d 140 [1986]).

Johnson retired to senior status on the Eleventh Circuit in 1991. He has received many honors and awards, including honorary doctorates of law from Notre Dame, Princeton, Alabama, Boston, Yale, Mercer, and the Tuskegee Institute. He has also received the Thurgood Marshall Award. In 1992 the government renamed the federal courthouse in Montgomery the Frank M. Johnson, Jr., Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. And in 1995 President Bill Clinton awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In presenting the award, Clinton noted Johnson's "landmark decisions in the areas of desegregation, voting rights, and civil liberties."

In 1984, Johnson was awarded the Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award, which is administered by the American Judicature Society. This award is named for Edward J. Devitt, a former chief U.S. district judge for Minnesota. It acknowledges the dedication and contributions to justice made by all federal judges, by recognizing the specific achievements of one judge who has contributed significantly to the profession.

For other people with a similar name, see Frank Johnson

Judge Frank Johnson, May 1967

Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. (born October 30, 1918 in Haleyville, Alabama - July 23, 1999 in Montgomery, Alabama) United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South. In the words of Bill Moyers, he "altered forever the face of the South."

An alumnus of The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama School of Law (one of Johnson's classmates was future George C. Wallace, who would be Johnson's bête noire in the civil rights litigation of the 1960s), Johnson served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, while his wife, Ruth (also a classmate from The University of Alabama) served in the WAVES as an advisor to Hollywood filmmakers. After military service, Johnson entered private law practice in Jasper, Alabama, 1946-1953. Delegate to Republican National Convention from Alabama, 1948; U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, 1953-55;

Federal Judicial Service:

• Judge of U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1955-1979;

Received a recess appointment from President Eisenhower on October 22, 1955, to a seat vacated by Charles B. Kennamer; nominated on January 12, 1956; Confirmed by the Senate on January 31, 1956, and received commission on February 1, 1956. Served as chief judge, 1966-1979. Service terminated on July 12, 1979, due to appointment to another judicial position.

• Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1979-1981;

Nominated by President Carter on April 2, 1979, to a new seat; Confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 1979, and received commission on June 21, 1979. Service terminated on October 1, 1981, due to assignment to another court.

• Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit 1981-1999;

Reassigned October 1, 1981; Assumed senior status on October 30, 1991. He was succeeded on the bench by Edward Earl Carnes. Service terminated on July 23, 1999, upon his death.

In 1977 President Carter and Attorney General Griffin Bell asked him to become FBI Director when Director Kelley stepped down. However the day after President Carter nominated him, Judge Johnson was discovered to have an aneurysm, or abnormal swelling, of his abdominal aorta, and later had to withdraw his name from the nomination. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995.

Notable Decisions

• Browder v. Gayle (1956)

Orders the racial integration of the public transportation system of the city of Montgomery.

• Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1961)

Invalidated the city of Tuskeegee's plan to dilute black voting strength by redrawing city boundaries so as to move concentrations of black voters out of the city limits.

• United States v. Alabama (1961)

Ordered that black persons be registered to vote if their application papers were equal to the performance of the least qualified white applicant accepted on the voting rolls.

• Lewis v. Greyhound (1961)

Required desegregation of the bus depots of the city of Montgomery.

• United States v. City of Montgomery (1961)

Ordered the city of Montgomery to surrender its voting registration records to the US Department of Justice.

• Sims v. Frink (1962)

Required the state of Alabama to reapportion state legislative districts to adhere to the 'one man, one vote' principle.

• Lee v. Macon County Board of Ed. (1963)

Mandated, in Alabama, the first statewide desegregation of public schools.

• Williams v. Wallace (1965)

Ordered Gov. George Wallace to permit Dr. King's civil rights protest march from Selma to Mongomery.

• White v. Crook (1966)

Ruled that the state of Alabama must permit Blacks to serve on juries.

• United States v. Alabama (1966)

Declared the Alabama poll tax unconstitutional.

• Smith v. YMCA of Montgomery (1970)

Ordered the desegregation of the Montgomery chapter of the YMCA.

• NAACP v. Dothard

Required the state of Alabama to hire one Black state trooper for every white state trooper until racial parity was achieved.

References

• Sikora, Frank (2007). The Judge: The Life and Opinions of Alabama's Frank M. Johnson, Jr.. NewSouth Books. ISBN 1-58838-158-7. 
• Bass, Jack (1992). Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., and the South's Fight over Civil Rights. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-41348-3. 
• Yarbrough, Tinsley E. (1981). Judge Frank Johnson and Human Rights in Alabama. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0056-2. 
• Jr. Kennedy, Robert F. (1978). Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr: A biography. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-12123-4. 
• Garrow, David J. (April 2000). "Visionaries of the Law: John Minor Wisdom and Frank M. Johnson, Jr.". Yale Law Journal 109: 1219-36. 
• Krotoszynski, Ronald J., Jr. (April 2000). "Equal Justice Under Law: The Jurisprudential Legacy of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.". Yale Law Journal 109: 1237-51. 
• Lewis, John (April 2000). "Reflections on Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.". Yale Law Journal 109: 1253-6. 
• Marshall, Burke (April 2000). "In Remembrance of Judges Frank M. Johnson, Jr. and John Minor Wisdom". Yale Law Journal 109: 1207-18. 
• Thompson, Myron H. (April 2000). "Measuring a Life: Frank Minis Johnson, Jr.". Yale Law Journal 109: 1257-9. 

External links

• 1979 biographical sketch upon induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor
• ABA's 1993 Thurgood Marshall Award

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