Nabrit, James Madison, Jr. (1900-1997), won fame as a civil rights lawyer, university president, and diplomat. From 1960 to 1969, he was president of Howard University. He was the first African American to become deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations (UN). He held the post in 1966 and 1967, while on leave from Howard.
Nabrit was born on Sept. 4, 1900, in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Morehouse College and Northwestern University Law School. In 1936, he joined the faculty of Howard University. At his suggestion, the university established–and he taught–the first civil rights course in an American law school. Nabrit served as secretary of the university from 1939 to 1960 and as dean of its law school from 1958 to 1960. As president of Howard, he encouraged greater student involvement in the university.
As a lawyer, Nabrit specialized in civil rights cases, especially school desegregation cases. In the 1940’s and the early 1950’s, Nabrit handled a number of cases for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He was one of the lead counsel in the case of Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.), which was made a companion case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Nabrit died on Dec. 27, 1997.
