L. Clifford Davis

L. Clifford Davis (October 12, 1924 – February 15, 2025) was an American attorney whose unsuccessful efforts for admission to the University of Arkansas Law School resulted in the eventual admission of African-American students to the school. He also served over thirty years as an attorney and judge, and assisted Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Background L. Clifford Davis was born in Wilton, Arkansas, on October 12, 1924. Since the town's educational opportunities for black students ended in the eighth grade, Clifton attended high school at Dunbar High School in Little Rock, where his parents began renting a home. He organized the Fort Worth Black Bar Association in 1977. In 1983, Governor Mark White appointed him to a judgeship in criminal district court. He continued to serve as a judge until he lost an election in 1988, then continued as a visiting judge until 2004.

Personal life and death Davis and his wife, the former Ethel Weaver (d. 2015), had two children.

Davis died at a Fort Worth nursing home on February 15, 2025, at the age of 100.