Judge Thelton Henderson

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I had the pleasure of viewing a documentary on the life and contributions of Federal Judge Thelton Henderson this afternoon on PBS. So, consider this my contribution to Black History Month. I'm ashamed to admit that I had never heard of this amazing man before. His life was traced back to his beginnings where he was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1933, to his moving along with his mother and grandmother to California when he was a child. His mother left him with his grandmother while she worked in people's homes to make a better life for him. He wanted to play football, but his hopes were side-lined when he received a knee injury. This fell into his mother's agenda because she had high hopes that he would someday become a professional -a doctor or a lawyer. He studied hard and excelled in his academic work in spite of adversity. Little did he know that his life was about to drastically change when he was recruited by the Justice Department to accompany a white lawyer down to the south where the civil rights battle was in full swing. It was hard for Thelton Henderson to recognize just how unusual a position he was in, being an eye-witness to history that was being made; and keeping in mind the fact that there was a line he could not cross because he worked for the government. He was ultimately forced to resign his position after innocently lending the use of his rental car to Dr. Martin Luther King and his entourage to go to Selma because Dr. King's car was not in a good condition. This caused a stir with all kinds of backlash against the government. Henderson was then offered a position by Dr. King, but had to turn it down because he felt he had been away from his son for too long and didn't want him to grow up having had so little contact with him. He returned to California where his accomplishments grew. He was hired by Stanford University Law School to recruit minorities after expressing his astonishment that they had never graduated a minority. He later went into private practice with two colleagues for about 10 years. He then went on to be appointed as a Judge with lifetime tenure. His decisions have not always been popular, but they have remained true to his sense of fairness. I also learned that he has a passion for fishing, and likes to get together with two longtime friends and harmonize on occasion.