John Victor Parker

Who was John Victor Parker?

John Victor Parker was a United States District Judge, best known for having ordered cross-town school busing as part of his oversight of the former East Baton Rouge Parish school desegregation suit, a case which he inherited when he was named to the bench and continued to manage until 2001.

Parker's colleague, Judge Brian Jackson, recalled that during the height of the desegregation controversy Parker had "received death threats ... was threatened with bodily injury ... and ostracized socially. What sustained him was his devotion to the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law."

Jackson noted too that Parker handled thousands of cases, including lawsuits emanating from a chemical leak from a barge of the Ingram Barge Company. Loaded with benzene and toluene, the barge capsized in 1997 across the Mississippi River from the Southern University campus. In 1985, Parker ordered a grand jury investigation of the General Services Administration because of a leaking roof and falling plaster at the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge. His efforts led to the $23 million Russell B. Long Federal Building, named for the late U.S. Senator Russell B. Long.