Creator: Parker, John Johnston, 1885-1958.
Collection number: 3464
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Abstract: John Johnston Parker (1885-1958) of Charlotte, N.C., was a judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit from 1925 to 1958. Papers include correspondence and other materials relating to legal practice; to jurisprudence in general, including judicial organization and international law; to the North Carolina and national Republican parties in which Parker was influential; to Parker’s unconfirmed appointment to the United States Supreme Court in 1930 and other occasions on which he was considered for the Supreme Court;to the University of North Carolina, of which he was long an active trustee; and to many other personal, political, and civic matters and organizations. There are also papers relating to official duties, including informal memoranda of cases and decisions, among them labor and racial integration cases, and reports of annual conferences of circuit judges.Other papers relate to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, 1945-1946, at which he was an alternate judge on the International Military Tribunal from the United States, and to study committees of the American Bar Association.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlight: In Series 1 (Personal Papers), there is a an address by Parker entitled “Race Relationships,”quoted in the December 1944 issue of the Church School Herald-Journal. There is a 30 Aug 1943 letter from James Shepard, president of the North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University). There is a 29 December 1949 letter from Victor Shaw, mayor of Charlotte, N.C., to Parker, enclosing copy of letter to Walter Winchell on race relations and religious relations in Charlotte. A 6 September 1950 letter to William D. Carmichael, Jr., controller of University of North Carolina, discusses admitting African Americans to the University of North Carolina Law School. Another letter, from 1 June 1954, from Parker to Governor Luther Hodges about action of the board of trustees on University of North Carolina concerning registration of African American undergraduates.In 1955 (Folders 289-290) there is a paper entitled “Race, Heredity, and Civilization” by Wesley Critz George.