Harold A. Stevens

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Harold Arnoldus Stevens (Johns Island, South Carolina, October 1907) is an African American jurist. He was born to William F. and Lilla L. Johnson Stevens. His father died when he was three years old and Harold left Johns Island, and moved to Columbia with his mother and maternal grandparents, the Reverend and Mrs. C.H. Johnson. Later his mother remarried. Harold attended Claflin College High School and earned a Bachelor's Degree from Benedict College in 1930. He headed to Boston, after he was rejected from the then-segregated University of South Carolina Law School. In 1936 he was the first black American to get an LL.B. degree in labor law from Boston College.

In the 1940's he was a counsel to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Provisional Committee to Organize Colored Locomotive Firemen. He is a veteran of World War II. Harold Stevens has received numerous awards and honorary degrees of national and international dimension. He became one of this nation's most outstanding jurists. From 1947 to 1950 he was a member of the New York Assembly. His elections or appointments to the New York State courts commenced after that with his election to the New York Court of General Sessions. Later, he served as Justice of the New York Supreme Court; Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court and held the highest rank of any black American in a state judicial system. Judge Stevens has served as a trustee or board member for many organizations, including St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York Medical College, New York University Law Center Foundation, the Council for Religious and International Affairs, and the National Center for State Courts. He served as a Special Council of Religious and International Affairs, and the National Center for State Courts. He served as a Special Counsel to President Roosevelt's Commission on Fair Employment Practices. Harold Stevens retired after 37 years in 1977.