AR SMR4

Senate Memorial Resolution honoring the Honorable L. Clifford Davis, a civil rights attorney and judge who passed away on February 15, 2025, at age 100

Born October 12, 1924, in Wilton, Arkansas; graduated from Philander Smith College in 1945 and Howard University School of Law in 1949; was admitted to the bar in Arkansas (1949) and Texas (1953)

Assisted Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) desegregation case, and played a pivotal role in desegregating public schools in Mansfield and Fort Worth, Texas

Elected in 1984 as the first Black judge of a state district court in Tarrant County, Texas, serving two decades on the bench; in 1977 co-founded what became the L. Clifford Davis Legal Association

Received numerous honors including induction into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, designation as a Texas Legal Legend, and an honorary doctorate from University of Arkansas School of Law in 2017 (in place of one denied due to racial discrimination in 1949)