James Nabrit, Jr.

James Madison Nabrit, Jr. (1900–1997) was a prominent civil rights attorney who won several important arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, served as president of Howard University from 1960 to 1965 and late 1966 to 1969 and was the father of James Nabrit, III who is also a civil rights attorney. James Nabrit, Jr. was born in Georgia on September 7, 1900 to James Nabrit, Sr., a Baptist minister and baker and to Norma Walton. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1923 and from Northwestern University Law School in 1927. Nabrit taught school in Louisiana and Arkansas from 1927 to 1930. From 1930 to 1936 he practiced law in Houston, Texas. Nabrit taught law at Howard University from 1936 to 1960. In 1938 he started the first formal...