Attorney and diplomat, William Henry Hastie, was born on November 17, 1904 in Knoxville, Tennessee. His childhood was spent there until him and his family moved to Washington, D.C. In 1921 Hastie graduated from Dunbar High School in Washington and received his A.B. Degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1925.He was given a friendly offering for graduate work at Oxford University and the University of Paris. Instead he decided to accept a job offer in New Jersey’s Bordentown Manual School. Two years later he entered Harvard University Law School.

 

Hastie was on the Harvard Law Review while he was there. He later joined the Howard University Law School. In 1931 he was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar. On top of this he entered private practice associated with the law firm of Charles Hamilton Houston. Hastie earned his Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard’s Law School in the two years following. President Roosevelt assigned him to the Virgin Islands Federal District Court in 1937, making Hastie the first African American federal judge. He served two years on the Virgin Islands bench. After these two years, he returned to the Howard University School of Law as dean and law professor.

 

In 1940 he stepped down from his law school position so he could accept his position as civilian aid to the Henry Stimson (Secretary of War). Hastie was taken in to help give advice on how to end separation between whites and black in the army, mostly in the Air Force. Though, even with his effort, segregation was still very common in the training facilities and there was a stronger inequality when it came to giving assignments to black and white men in the service. This enormous issue of unsolved racism caused him to give up his position and return to Howard Law School. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP in 1943 for contributing to civil rights and for stepping down from the War Department as an act of protest.

 

Hastie became the first African American governor after his return to the Virgin Islands between 1946 and 1949. He was appointed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1949, the highest position of a judge reached by an African American to that time. William Hastie served this position for 21 years. From 1968 to 1971 he served as judge chief. William Henry Hastie died on April 14, 1976 in Norristown, Virginia. He left behind his wife (Beryl Lockhart), his children (William H., Jr., and Karen H. Williams), and a remarkable legacy.

 

 

 

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