Walter A. Gordon

Walter A. Gordon (1894–1976) was the first African American to receive a doctorate of law from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall law school. He had an extremely long and varied career where he served as a police officer, lawyer, assistant football coach, member of the California State Adult Authority, Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, and a Federal District Judge.

Gordon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, though his family moved to Riverside, California in 1904. He graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School before enrolling in the University of California, Berkeley. While there, he was a consummate athlete and lettered in football (as a lineman for the California Golden Bears), boxing, and wrestling. He graduated in 1918 and enrolled in Boalt Hall for his doctorate.

In 1919, Gordon began two of the careers that would define the remainder of his life: he was hired as a part-time assistant coach of the Golden Bears and joined the police force in Berkeley, California. In 1922, he began his third career and opened a law office in Oakland, California. He continued all three jobs until 1930, when he retired from the police force. He was branch president of the Berkeley NAACP in the 1930s. During the Zoot Suit Riots of Los Angeles in 1943 there were clashes between Mexican American youths and servicemen. Governor Earl Warren sent a team, headed by Walter Gordon, to Los Angeles to evaluate the conflict. Later in 1943, he retired as the assistant coach to join the California Adult Authority, that state's parole board, and eventually becoming chairman, serving for nine years. In 1944, he retired from law.

In 1955, while still working for the Adult Authority, he was appointed Governor of the United States Virgin Islands. That same year, he was named as UC Berkeley alumni of the year. In 1958, he resigned as Governor to take an appointment as a Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Virgin Islands.

He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.

References

*New Governor of Virgin Islands Is Sworn In by the Chief Justice. By ALVIN SHUSTER. Special to The New York Times. New York Times. New York, N.Y.: Oct 8, 1955. pg. 9, 1 pgs
*WALTER A. GORDON OF VIRGIN ISLANDS. New York, N.Y.: Apr 6, 1976. pg. 36, 1 pgs

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