The Hon. L. Clifford Davis, retired Texas senior district judge, was inducted as a Texas Legal Legend, by the Litigation Section of the State Bar at a ceremony held at the law school on April 8. Judge Davis, 99, whose legal career spans over seven decades, has an unmistakable legacy in law.
The ceremony opened with a welcome from The Hon. Christine Stetson followed by remarks by Bobbie Edmonds, a Fort Worth attorney, and Michael Heiskell, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
Texas Legal Legends is a project under the State Bar of Texas meant to memorialize the stories of legendary lawyers who have practiced in Texas, and to use those stories to enhance the public’s understanding of the historical importance of lawyers and the importance of making a difference.
Judge Davis was born in Wilton, Arkansas on October 12, 1924. He graduated from Philander Smith College in 1945, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and received his juris doctor degree from Howard University in 1949. He then returned to his home state of Arkansas and passed the bar.
He later moved to Waco in 1952 to teach at Paul Quinn College. He passed the Texas State Bar and opened one of the first Black-owned law practices in the state in Fort Worth. He worked with then-attorney Thurgood Marshall, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), on the 1954 case that became Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.
Following Brown, he spearheaded the quest for school integration in Texas, filing federal lawsuits that resulted in the integration of the public schools in Fort Worth and Mansfield. In 1977, he helped organize the Fort Worth Black Bar Association, which is now known as the L. Clifford Davis Legal Association.
In 1983, Governor Mark White appointed him judge of Tarrant County District Criminal Court No. 2, where he served until 1988. Following that, he served as visiting district judge and senior district judge until 2004. In recent years, he has stayed busy, in part, through pro bono work and service to the community. He has dedication to the championing of civil rights marks him as a true Texas Legal Legend.
Judge Davis reflected on his career at the ceremony and emphasized the important need for lawyers to exhibit civil responsibility.
“Having practiced law since 1949, I’ve developed my homemade definition of civil responsibility,” he said. “We have the civil responsibility — individually and collectively — to treat all persons with whom we have contact with decency, courtesy, respect, and integrity. And practice and advocate for freedom, justice, and equality for the general welfare of the total environment.”