LEGAL NEWS PHOTOS BY CYNTHIA PRICE
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
There is no doubt about it: induction into a national hall of fame is heady stuff.
When the organization sponsoring that hall of fame is one that has fought so honorably over the past nine decades for the rights of African-Americans, including members of the bench and bar, as the National Bar Association (NBA) has, the honor is outstanding.
So, for 61st District Court Judge Benjamin Logan, the July 31 luncheon at the NBA’s 88th annual convention at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida was a high point in his own decades-long career, which has included almost innumerable awards and honors.
The NBA was founded in 1925, at a time when there were very few African-Americans in the legal profession — even in 1940 there were still fewer than 1,000 in the U.S. — and is the oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys, judges, law professors and law students. With about 44,000 members, the NBA has over 80 affiliate chapters in the United States and globally.
Located in Washington DC, the NBA’s proud history includes establishment of the Crump Law Camp, providing early high school students with an introduction to the judicial and legal system, as well as other programs intended to foster the pipeline for African-American youth pursuing legal careers, and developing the NBA/Carleton College Scholarship, awarded to up to four deserving African-American students.
Founders and members of the NBA included pioneering attorneys who fought battles for the rights of African-Americans everywhere, including R.D. Evans, who tried the 1919 Waco, Texas, case against the Democratic Party which was prohibiting “colored people” from voting in primary elections, and lawyers such as the Hon. James A. Cobb, T. Gillis Nutter, Ashbie Hawkins, S.D. McGill, R.P. Crawford, and J.L. Lewis who pursued well-known cases that moved the rights of African-Americans forward. One of the founders, Gertrude E. Rush, was a female African-American attorney at a time when that was quite singular.
Over the decades, the NBA has forged a number of partnerships which allow them to offer key benefits to members, including continuing legal education, group discount purchasing and group insurance. The NBA also runs a Referral and Information Center for commercial lawyers.
The NBA has often taken policy positions over the years, and at last week’s conference announced it will be supporting repeal of the “stand your ground” laws in 24 states, in solidary with the families of victims Trayvon Martin and Hidaya Pendleton. Attorneys associated with those two cases presented at the conference.
The 2013 Hall of Fame inductees represent the 27th annual cohort. Previously honored were The Hon. Thurgood Marshall, first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme Court and a SCOTUS Justice from 1967 to 1991; civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks, Esq., long-term leader of the NAACP; Frankie Muse Freeman, Esq., the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and Cora T. Walker, Esq., president of the Harlem Lawyers Association.
According to the notification letter sent to Logan by the NBA’s interim manager and Executive Director Emeritus John Crump, “The NBA Hall of Fame induction is a high honor bestowed by the National Bar Association upon members of the Bar who have served long and gallantly, in the pursuit of justice and equality before the courts of the United States of America. This induction is in recognition of your many years of service in the practice of law and the National Bar Association, your significant contributions that you have made to the cause of justice and to the African-American community for more than 40 years in the practice of law.”
Also inducted were Hon. Patricia Banks of Chicago, Shirley Stewart Farmer of New York, Hon. Donald J. Floyd of Texas, Robert L. Harris of Oakland, Raymond Howard of St. Louis, Veronica Morgan-Price also of Texas, H.T. Smith of Miami, and, posthumously, Clyde L. Williams, Jr. of Richmond, Ill.
Judge Logan comments about the illustrious luncheon ceremony, “It was humbling.”
Logan has been a judge for the 61st District Court since his initial election in 1988, and has been re-elected twice. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Logan was briefly an accountant after graduating from Ohio Northern University with a major in accounting and history. He returned to that university for his juris doctor, graduating in 1972.
After a brief stint at Legal Aid of Grand Rapids, he practiced personal injury, civil rights, and criminal law as a senior partner at the firm Logan and Beason. He was a Michigan Civil Rights referee from 1984 to 1988, and he founded the Floyd Skinner Bar Association.
Judge Logan is in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Black America, Black Judges in America, Who’s Who in Politics, and Who’s Who in American Law Enforcement Leaders. Among many other awards, he has received honors from his high school, the municipalities of Dayton, Kansas City, Pontiac, Muskegon Heights and other cities, the NAACP of Grand Rapids and the national NAACP, and from the Augustus D. Straker Bar.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
