John Robert Brown

Who was John Robert Brown?

John Robert Brown was a United States federal judge of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1950s and 1960s, one of the "Fifth Circuit Four" pivotal in the civil rights movement.

Brown was born 1909 in Funk, Nebraska. He received an A.B. from the University of Nebraska in 1930, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1932. He was in private practice as an admiralty lawyer with the firm Royston Rayzor in Houston and Galveston, Texas from 1932 to 1955, except for a four-year stint as a United States Army major during World War II, from 1942 to 1946.

Brown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 25, 1955, to a seat vacated by Robert Lee Russell. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 22, 1955, and received his commission on July 27, 1955. Brown became known as one of the "Fifth Circuit Four"--Brown, Elbert Tuttle, Richard Rives, and John Minor Wisdom--so called because of a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone.