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Judge William Hastie, 71, Of Federal Court, Dies

Judge William Hastie, 71, Of Federal Court, Dies
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April 15, 1976, Page 36Buy Reprints
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PHILADELPHIA, April 14 (AP)—Judge William H. Hastie, the first black appointed to a Federal appeals court judgeship and a former Governor of the Virgin Islands, died today at Suburban General Hospital in East Norriton. He was 71 years old.

Won Springarn Medal

When Judge Hastie was named to the United States Cir., cuit of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Harry S. Truman in October 1949, it was the highest legal post to be attained by a black in this country. Confirmation came the following July. He was to serve 21 years on the appellate court bench, three of them as chief judge. He assumed the title of senior judge on his retirement in 1971.

A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Mr. Hastie, who had been a Federal district judge in the Virgin Islands from 1937 to 1939, was elected Governor of the islands in 1946 and served until 1949.

He began his career in the Federal Government in 1933, when he was named an assistant solicitor for the Department of the Interior, advising the agency on racial matters. He was named dean of the Howard University Law School in 1939 after having served for some years as a professor of law.

In World War II, Judge Hastie served as a civilian aide to Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War, but resigned in 1943 in protest over what he called “the reactionary policies and discriminatory ‘ practices” of the Army Air Forces.

Mingling Was at Issue

“The simple fact is,” he said, “that the air command does not want Negro pilots flying in and out of various fields, eating, sleeping and mingling with other personnel, as a service pilot must do in carrying out his various missions.”

In that year, 1943, Mr, Hastie was awarded the Spingarn Medal, given annually at a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the black person who has made “the outstanding contribution to the advancement of the Negro status.”

He held honorary degrees from several colleges and universities and served as a trustee of Amherst College and Temple University.

Surviving are his wife, the former Beryl Lockhart; a son, William H. Jr., who is a lawyer who married a lawyer; a daughter, Karen Williams, also a lawyer, whose husband is lawyer, and a granddaughter.

There will be a funeral service Saturday at 11 A.M. in the Temple University Baptist Chapel, 1349 Broad Street, Philadelphia.

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