A. Leon Higginbotham

Leon Higginbotham
Higginbotham with Bill Clinton at a Medal of Freedom ceremony, 1995
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
In office January 15, 1990 – January 31, 1991
Preceded by	John Gibbons
Succeeded by	Dolores Sloviter
Presiding Judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review
In office May 19, 1979 – May 18, 1986
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	Collins Seitz
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
In office October 11, 1977 – January 31, 1991
Appointed by	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Francis Van Dusen
Succeeded by	Theodore McKee
Judge of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
In office March 17, 1964 – November 7, 1977
Appointed by	Lyndon Johnson
Preceded by	James Ganey
Succeeded by	Louis Pollak
Personal details
Born	Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham (1928-02-25)February 25, 1928 Ewing, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	December 14, 1998(1998-12-14) (aged 70) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Evelyn Brooks
Education	Purdue University, West Lafayette Antioch College (BA) Yale University (LLB)

Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. (February 25, 1928 – December 14, 1998) was a prominent African-American civil rights advocate, author, and federal appeals court judge. Higginbotham was the seventh African-American Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the first African-American judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He served as Chief Judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1991. He used the name "Leon" informally.

Higginbotham was born on February 25, 1928, in Ewing, a suburb of Trenton, New Jersey. His mother, Emma Lee Higginbotham, was a maid, and his father, Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Sr., was a factory worker. Higginbotham was raised in a largely African-American neighborhood, and attended a segregated grammar school.

Higginbotham attended Lincoln School, a segregated high school in Trenton. Prior to Higginbotham, no black student had been put on the academic track (which was a significant step towards attending college), because Latin, a requirement for the program, was not taught at the black elementary schools. Higginbotham's mother convinced the principal at the junior high school to enroll him in a second-year Latin course, even though he had never studied first year Latin. To ensure that he was able to pass the required classes, the junior high Latin teacher offered to tutor him at her home during the summer. Higginbotham's family was of modest economic means, so he worked while attending school, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, and working as a bus boy at the Stacy Trent hotel. While in high school, Higginbotham manipulated his birth certificate in order to get working papers at 15, a year before the law allowed, so that he could work in a pottery factory shoveling clay.

At 16 Higginbotham enrolled in Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana. He chose Purdue because it admitted black students; was cheaper, at that time, than Rutgers University; and offered tuition discounts for good academic performance. Higginbotham was also interested in Purdue because he wanted to be an engineer, and Purdue was known as an engineering school.