Benjamin C. Dawkins, Jr.

Benjamin Cornwell Dawkins, Jr. (August 6, 1911 – August 31, 1984), was a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Biography

Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Dawkins received a B.A. from Tulane University in 1932 and an LL.B. from Louisiana State University Law Center in 1934. In 1933, he served as a law clerk of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. From 1934 to 1935, he was in private practice in Monroe. From 1935 to 1953, he practiced in Shreveport. He was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945.

On July 21, 1953, Dawkins was nominated by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a seat on the District Court for the Western District of Louisiana vacated by his father, Benjamin C. Dawkins, Sr. The younger Dawkins was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 31, 1953, and received his commission four days later. He served as chief judge from 1953 to 1973.

In 1962, Judge Dawkins declared that racial segregation at the Shreveport bus terminal imposed an "undue burden" upon interstate commerce at odds with the Commerce Clause of Article 1, Section 8 , of the United States Constitution. He directed city officials, including Mayor Clyde Fant and Public Safety Commissioner J. Earl Downs, to halt the state segregation policy at the bus terminal and to pay costs related to a lawsuit filed by the city which had sought to maintain segregation. Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy and his chief deputy, James M. Goslin, were removed as defendants in the case, The attorney for the city was a rising political figure, later U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.^[1]

Dawkins assumed senior status on August 6, 1973, at which time his successor, Thomas E. Stagg, Jr. was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon. Dawkins continued to serve in senior status until his death eleven years later in Shreveport.^[2]

Recorded interviews (audiotape and written transcripts) of Judge Ben C. Dawkins, Jr., are located in the Louisiana State University, Shreveport library archives. They are divided in two variously dated sections: March 1978 and June 1979.^[2]

References

• Benjamin C. Dawkins, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.