April 19, 2025
In 1966, he turned the primary Black choose to sit down on the Circuit Court docket of Maryland.
George Levi Russell Jr., who turned the primary Black choose to sit down on the Circuit Court docket of Maryland in 1966, died on April 12 on the age of 96.
In accordance with The Baltimore Banner, others recalled the deep legacy of Russell within the authorized discipline that was crammed with many firsts, together with his changing into one of many first Black candidates to run for the mayor of Baltimore.
Russell, in response to a 2005 interview with The Baltimore Solar, made up his thoughts within the third grade that he would grow to be a lawyer as a result of his father, a postal employee, at all times pushed him to be formidable.
Russell was much more motivated as he turned extra conscious of the injustices visited upon Black folks, citing in that Solar interview that he knew that Black college students had been usually handed down used books.
“That they had pages that had been marked over. A number of the pages had been torn,” Russell famous, nonetheless disturbed by the understanding that Black college students had been handled as lower than their white counterparts.
Russell attended Lincoln College, an HBCU in Pennsylvania, incomes his undergraduate diploma earlier than he earned his regulation diploma from the College of Maryland in 1954 and following that achievement, he went into the Military shortly after he earned his regulation diploma.
Whereas within the Military, he practiced regulation and was positioned in control of courts, boards and particular courts-martial. Following the conclusion of his service within the Military, Russell began his authorized profession as an affiliate at Brown, Allen, Watts & Murphy, one of many first Black regulation corporations in Baltimore and the primary one to have an workplace downtown.
In accordance with Larry Gibson, a long-time good friend and colleague of Russell, “He leaves a legacy of a frontrunner that claims that we as a folks, as a rustic, shouldn’t simply concentrate on what’s now or what appears to be occurring, however on potentialities,” Gibson informed the Banner. “A lot of what he performed a significant position in getting completed, folks had issue understanding that it was actually attainable. I don’t even assume he wished to be a choose. I believe he did it simply to point out that it may occur.”
In accordance with Gibson, this was made clear through the 1971 race for the mayor of Baltimore when Russell’s look on the poll showcased “the potential for a Black vote within the metropolis, as a result of up till then, our politics was just about efficient, we thought, solely in a single a part of the town.” Arguably, Russell’s candidacy paved the way in which for the mayorship of Brandon Scott within the current day.
Past the courtroom and politics, Russell’s legacy additionally contains main the cost to the get Reginald F. Lewis Musuem established.
“Earlier than there was a Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, there was a Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American Historical past and Tradition, and that was as a result of Mr. Russell led the cost that this wanted to occur,” Terri Lee Freeman, the president of the Lewis Museum, informed the outlet.
She continued, “Had he not had the tenacity that he had, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum most likely wouldn’t be standing immediately. He was decided that this may not simply be any throwaway constructing that they had been going to provide to the African American Museum, that it was going to be a state-of-the-art constructing and establishment that was consultant of the greatness of the contributions of African Individuals within the state of Maryland.”
Russell is survived by his son, George Russell III, who like his father, turned a lawyer and at the moment sits because the chief choose of the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Maryland after being nominated to the federal bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama.
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