Eulogy

By DERRICK BELL

LEON HIGGINBOTHAM earned a national reputation as lawyer, jurist, teacher, scholar and activist. His achievements are especially meaningful to me, a friend of 40 years, because Leon spoke out strongly on racial issues. His admonishments to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are well known, but few are aware he appointed more minority clerks than any other judge.

On the bench, he defied racial stereotypes. When officials of a white union defending a job-discrimination case claimed a black civil rights advocate could not objectively preside over it, Higginbotham issued an opinion condemning the subconscious but widely held view that only white judges could decide racial issues fairly.

Invited by the Harvard Law Review in 1986 to address its 100th-anniversary banquet, he lectured about Harvard and Yale law grads on the Supreme Court and in legal practice who hindered rather than helped the fight for racial justice. He warned, "Because today's law students will be tomorrow's political leaders, judges and Supreme Court Justices, it is crucial that they develop a social conscience."

--By Derrick Bell, Visiting Professor, New York University Law School