Biography 

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., who passed away in 1998, was an American lawyer, judge, and scholar whose nearly 30 years as an influential federal judge included service as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1989 to 1993. Higginbotham referred to himself as a "survivor of segregation," and energetically championed integration and civil rights during his lifetime. Citing his commitment to equality and civil rights, President Clinton awarded Higginbotham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in September 1995.

Higginbotham served as public service professor of jurisprudence at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and was appointed commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights by President Bill Clinton in October 1995.

After his retirement in 1993 from the Court of Appeals, Higginbotham served as an international mediator during South Africa's 1994 elections and as counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus in a series of voting rights cases before the United States Supreme Court. He was also of counsel to the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.

Higginbotham was appointed to the federal circuit bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, after having served as a federal district court judge in the eastern district of Pennsylvania for 13 years. He served as vice chairman of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence under President Lyndon Johnson and as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission under President John F. Kennedy, becoming the youngest person to hold that post. Higginbotham is also former president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The recipient of more than 60 honorary degrees, Higginbotham earned a bachelor's degree from Antioch College in 1949 and a law degree from Yale Law School in 1952. During his lifetime he received several national and international awards, including One of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Men in America; Outstanding Young Man in Government; and the Martin Luther King Award for outstanding service in the field of human rights.