MISSOURI'S BLACK LEGAL HISTORY (PARTIAL)

http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=60263 THIS 2013 ARTICLE BY THE LATE MISSOURI SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUDGE RICHARD B. TEITELMAN IS AN ACCURATE, THOUGH LIMITED, ACCOUNT OF BLACKS IN THE MISSOURI'S LEGAL HISTORY AND JUDICIARY, STATE AND FEDERAL. I HAD PREVIOUSLY SOUGHT TO KNOW THE IDENTITY OF THE FIRST BLACK MISSOURI ATTORNEY, BEFORE BAR EXAMS. THE EARLIEST THAT I HAVE READ OF WAS JAMES MILTON TURNER, IN THE 1880'S, WHO REPORTEDLY PRACTICED ON BLACK FREEDMEN'S INDIAN LAND AND MINERAL CLAIMS IN OKLAHOMA TERRITORY, ALTHOUGH HIS MISSOURI PRACTICE IS UNKNOWN. IN 1995, I WAS CO-COUNSEL IN A CASE FILED BY ATTORNEY ELBERT WALTON IN ST. LOUIS FEDERAL COURT. OUR SUIT CHALLENGED THE MISSOURI NONPARTISAN COURT PLAN AS RACIST. WHILE OUR LAWSUIT WAS PENDING BEFORE JUDGE FILIPINE IN FEDERAL COURT IN ST, LOUIS, JUDGE RONNIE WHITE WAS APPOINTED TO THE MISSOURI SUPREME COURT. JUDGE FILIPINE'S ENSUED 55-PAGE DECISION REJECTING OUR CIVIL RIGHTS CLAIMS WAS NOT PUBLISHED, UNFORTUNATELY, AS IT CONTAINED HISTORY THAT IS PRACTICALLY UNKNOWN, EXCEPT BY THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED OR WHO TESTIFIED. THE DEPOSITION OF JACKSON COUNTY CIRCUIT JUDGE LEWIS W. CLYMER, DECEASED, THAT I TOOK AS EVIDENCE IN THAT UNIQUE CASE, AND FILED IN THAT CASE AS SUGGESTIONS OPPOSING ITS DISMISSAL, CONTAINS OTHER FASCINATING INFORMATION ON THE LIFE OF BLACK LAWYERS IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI AND IN MISSOURI GENERALLY.