George Howard, Jr. (May 13 1924-April 21 2007) was an American World War II veteran, attorney, and federal judge. He was the first African-American U.S. District Court judge in Arkansas. He served first on the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, and was then transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Howard played an important role in the Whitewater controversy, presiding over several Whitewater-related cases, including the separate trials of Jim and Susan McDougal once calling on President Bill Clinton to testify.

Early life

Howard was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1924. As a teenager he left home to serve in the United States Navy during World War II, a time when he was subjected to racism that would inspire him to become a lawyer. Howard completed his military service, finished high school, and went on to Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, where he graduated with honors from their pre-law program. He then entered the University of Arkansas and became the first African-American to live in campus housing at the school. Howard enrolled in law school at the university and received his juris doctorate in 1954. Howard then returned to Pine Bluff and established a law practice. During this period he ran his only political campaign, an unsuccessful city coucil bid, and served as president of the State Council of Branches for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Judicial career

Governor Winthrop Rockefeller appointed Howard to the Arkansas State Claims Commission in 1967, a position he held until 1977, when Governor David Pryor named him Arkansas Supreme Court justice. In 1979 Governor Bill Clinton appointed Howard as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Howard would hold this position only briefly, as President Jimmy Carter appointed him federal judge for the Eastern and Western districts of Arkansas in 1980, a position he would hold until his death in 2007. Howard became the first African-American in the history of Arkansas to serve as a state Supreme Court justice, Court of Appeals judge, and federal judge. Judge Howard played an important judicial role in the Whitewater trial, which led to the downfall of then- Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. During the Whitewater trials, Judge Howard called for video testimony from Clinton, the man who had appointed him to the court of appeals years earlier. Judge Howard was known for his fairness and commitment to civil rights, and made the daily drive from his home in Pine Bluff to Little Rock to carry out his judicial duties, despite being slowed in recent years by declining health.

Legacy

Judge George Howard, Jr. died April 21, 2007, at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, after battling health issues for several years. Three days later, on April 24, U.S. Representative Mike Ross and Arkansas Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor introduced legislation before the House of Representatives and the Senate to rename the Pine Bluff federal building and courthouse after Judge Howard Howard was honored on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 26, 2007. The legislation, now on the House floor as H.R. bill 2011, will rename the building on 100 East 8th Avenue in Pine Bluff as the George Howard, Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse. Howard, whose portrait hangs in the federal courthouses in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, has a scholarship fund maintained in his honor, The George Howard Junior Scholarship Fund at the William H. Bowen School of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

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