Harold Hitz Burton

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Harold H. Burton
Senior Senator, Ohio
In office 1941–1945
Preceded by	A. Vic Donahey
Succeeded by	James W. Huffman
Born	June 22, 1888 Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Died	October 28, 1964 Washington, D.C.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Selma Florence Smith, Married 1912

Harold Hitz Burton (June 22, 1888 – October 28, 1964) served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the United States Senate and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was known as a dispassionate jurist, who epitomized equal justice under the law.

He was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to Alfred Burton and Gertrude Hitz. His father was a Dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was also an explorer. He had accompanied Robert Peary on several expeditions to the North Pole. His mother was a daughter of the first Swiss Consul General to the United States.

Burton attended Bowdoin College, where his roommate and fellow Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother was Owen Brewster, who later became a U.S. Senator from Maine. He went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1912. After graduating, he practiced law in Ohio. He was a United States Army infantry lieutenant during World War I, seeing heavy action in France.

Burton served in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1929 and was the law director of Cleveland, Ohio before being elected Mayor of Cleveland in 1935, running as a Republican. He served until his election as United States Senator in 1941. It was in the Senate that he first met fellow senator Harry S. Truman. Burton served with Truman on the Senate investigative committee that oversaw the U.S. war effort during World War II, and the two got along well. Truman was elected Vice President of the United States in 1944, and assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

When Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts retired later that year, Truman decided to appoint a Republican as a bipartisan gesture. Burton resigned from the Senate when President Truman appointed him to the Court. His nomination was announced to the Senate and confirmed unanimously on the same day, without hearing or debate. Burton served until retiring on October 13, 1958. He suffered from Parkinson's disease in his later years. He died from complications arising from this, kidney failure and pulmonary trouble. According to Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren's papers, Burton was influential in bringing about the Supreme Court's unanimity in the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education.

Burton married Selma Florence Smith in 1912. They had four children: Barbara (Mrs. Charles Weidner), William (who served in the Ohio House of Representatives and was a noted trial lawyer), Deborah (Mrs. Wallace Adler), and Robert (a distinguished attorney and counsel to athletes).

The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress holds an extensive collection of Burton's personal and judicial papers, including Supreme Court conference notes, which have been widely used by legal historians.

[edit] References

• Harold Hitz Burton Papers [1]
• Obituary from the New York Times, October 29, 1964, pg 35.

Preceded by Harry L. Davis	Mayor of Cleveland 1936–1940	Succeeded by Edward J. Blythin
Preceded by A. Vic Donahey	United States Senator (Class 1) from Ohio 1941–1945	Succeeded by James W. Huffman
Preceded by Owen Josephus Roberts	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States October 1, 1945–October 13, 1958	Succeeded by Potter Stewart

The Stone Court
1945–1946:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | R.H. Jackson | W.B. Rutledge | H.H. Burton
The Vinson Court
1946–1949:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | R.H. Jackson | W.B. Rutledge | H.H. Burton
1949–1953:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | R.H. Jackson | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton
The Warren Court
1953–1954:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | R.H. Jackson | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton
1955–1956:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton | J.M. Harlan II
1956–1957:	H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan
1957–1958:	H. Black | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | C.E. Whittaker