Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (February 2, 1928 - December 14, 1998) was a prominent black civic leader, author, and federal appeals court judge in the United States. He generally used the name Leon informally. February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Higginbotham attended Purdue University and Antioch College where he earned his B.A. in 1949. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1952. He later became the first black person to be a trustee of Yale University (in 1969). See also Purdue University System. ... Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. ... Yale Law School, established in 1843 in New Haven, Connecticut, is a division of Yale University. ... Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

He practiced law, and served in many government positions including: Philadelphia County assistant district attorney; a special hearing officer for conscientious objectors to the draft (1960-62); on the Federal Trade Commission (1962-64). He became a federal judge in 1964, and in 1977 became an appeals courge judge (in the third circuit). In 1968 he served on President Lyndon B. Johnson's Kerner Commission. After he retired from the bench in 1993, he joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a counsel and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as a professor. He held both positions for the remainder of his life. The word draft (also draught) has multiple meanings: The draft is a synonym for conscription or peacetime national service. ... FTC headquarters, Washington, D.C. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an Independent Agency of the United States Government, established in 1914. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). ... The Kerner Commission was created to report to president Lyndon Johnson on the recent 1967 race riots. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... The John F. Kennedy School of Government is a school within Harvard University that offers graduate degrees in public policy and public administration, as well as conducting research in various subjects relating to politics and government. ...

He worked with groups trying to establish credibility in their policies towards black people. Most notably he was one of the international mediators of the first inter-racial elections in South Africa in 1994, and was an advisor to the senior management of Texaco when they were accused of not treating black people fairly. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. Texaco was the name of an American oil company that was merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. ... The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States, considered the equivalent of the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. ...

Books by Higginbotham:

• In the Matter of Color: The Colonial Period (1978)
• Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process (1996)