George Howard, Jr.

George Howard Jr. (May 13, 1924 – April 21, 2007) was an American World War II veteran, attorney, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. He was the first African-American United States district judge in Arkansas. Howard played an important role in the Whitewater controversy, presiding over several Whitewater-related cases, including the separate trials of Jim and Susan McDougal, and once called on President Bill Clinton to testify.

Early life

Howard was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on May 13, 1924. As a teenager he left home to serve in the United States Navy during World War II, a time when he was subjected to racism that would inspire him to become a lawyer. Howard served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946, He then entered the University of Arkansas and became the first African-American to live in campus housing at the school. Howard enrolled at the University of Arkansas School of Law and received his Juris Doctor in 1954. Howard is named as one of the "Six Pioneers," the first six African-American students to attend to University of Arkansas School of Law. Howard then returned to Pine Bluff and established a law practice, which he operated from 1954 to 1977, and in 1979. During the Whitewater trials, Howard called for video testimony from Clinton, the man who had appointed him to the court of appeals years earlier. Howard was known for his fairness and commitment to civil rights. He made the daily drive from his home in Pine Bluff to Little Rock, Arkansas to carry out his judicial duties, despite being slowed in his later years by declining health. Howard was honored on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 26, 2007. Howard, whose portrait hangs in the federal courthouses in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, has a scholarship fund maintained in his honor, The George Howard Junior Scholarship Fund at the William H. Bowen School of Law of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.