George Levi Russell Jr., who became the first Black judge to sit on the Circuit Court of Maryland in 1966, died on April 12 at the age of 96.
According to The Baltimore Banner, others recalled the deep legacy of Russell in the legal field that was filled with many firsts, including his becoming one of the first Black candidates to run for the mayor of Baltimore.
Russell, according to a 2005 interview with The Baltimore Sun, made up his mind in the third grade that he would become a lawyer because his father, a postal worker, always pushed him to be ambitious.
Russell was even more motivated as he became more aware of the injustices visited upon Black people, citing in that Sun interview that he knew that Black students were often handed down used books.
“They had pages that were marked over. Some of the pages were torn,” Russell noted, still disturbed by the understanding that Black students were treated as less than their white counterparts.
Russell attended Lincoln University, an HBCU in Pennsylvania, earning his undergraduate degree before he earned his law degree from the University of Maryland in 1954 and following that achievement, he went into the Army shortly after he earned his law degree.
While in the Army, he practiced law and was placed in charge of courts, boards and special courts-martial. Following the conclusion of his service in the Army, Russell started his legal career as an associate at Brown, Allen, Watts & Murphy, one of the first Black law firms in Baltimore and the first one to have an office downtown.
According to Larry Gibson, a long-time friend and colleague of Russell, “He leaves a legacy of a leader that says that we as a people, as a country, shouldn’t just focus on what is now or what seems to be happening, but on possibilities,” Gibson told the Banner. “So much of what he played a major role in getting done, people had difficulty understanding that it was really possible. I don’t even think he wanted to be a judge. I think he did it just to show that it could happen.”
According to Gibson, this was made clear during the 1971 race for the mayor of Baltimore when Russell’s appearance on the ballot showcased “the potential for a Black vote in the city, because up until then, our politics was pretty much effective, we thought, only in one part of the city.” Arguably, Russell’s candidacy paved the way for the mayorship of Brandon Scott in the present day.
Beyond the courtroom and politics, Russell’s legacy also includes leading the charge to the get Reginald F. Lewis Musuem established.
“Before there was a National Museum of African American History and Culture, there was a Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, and that was because Mr. Russell led the charge that this needed to happen,” Terri Lee Freeman, the president of the Lewis Museum, told the outlet.
She continued, “Had he not had the tenacity that he had, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum probably wouldn’t be standing today. He was determined that this would not just be any throwaway building that they were going to give to the African American Museum, that it was going to be a state-of-the-art building and institution that was representative of the greatness of the contributions of African Americans in the state of Maryland.”
Russell is survived by his son, George Russell III, who like his father, became a lawyer and currently sits as the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after being nominated to the federal bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama.
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