Walter Arthur Gordon, Class of 1922
AN ALL-AMERICAN'S LIFE
Walter Gordon's life was one of firsts. He was the first African-American to play varsity football at the University of California. The first West Coast player to be named an All-American. The first black police officer in the Berkeley Police Department. The first African-American to graduate from Boalt Hall. His tenure as president of the Alameda County NAACP (1923-1933) saw the first tentative steps toward ending racial discrimination in California.
A life-long friend (and former boxing partner) of Earl Warren, '14, Gordon was tapped by the then governor for a committee formed to quell the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles, touched off by racial tensions between Latinos and US Navy sailors stationed in the area. Walter Gordon served as a member and then chairman of the California Adult Authority from 1944 to 1955, and was largely responsible for the desegregation of the California prison system. In 1955 he was appointed Governor of the Virgin Islands, and later served as judge for the U.S. District Court there.
An exhibition honoring Walter Gordon's life of service can be seen in the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Reading Room from February through April 2008. Many items in the exhibition have been generously loaned by the Gordon family.
February 2008 -
Law School in a Box -
With the motto, "All the prestige for a fraction of the price" a company named Mental Floss in 2006 produced small tin boxes which they jokingly promised were the equivalent of attending law school...
January 2008 -
John Boalt Calling Card -
This calling card of attorney John H. Boalt is annotated, "Rec'd on a/c one article. M.W. Sheim."...
December 2007 -
Dickens Reading Card -
In 1886 Berkeley's Longfellow Memorial Association invited its members to gather to hear Capt. Walter Lord read selections from Dickens. The meeting was to be held in North Hall in the office of William Carey Jones, who since 1882 had been teaching law classes at the University...
November 2007 -
Witkin on Berkeley -
Bernard Witkin's personal copy of Bishop Berkeley's A New Theory of Vision and Other Select Philosophical Writings is heavily annotated with Witkin's manuscript observations and comments. George, Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753) was the Irish philosopher whose poem "Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America" was the inspiration for the naming of the town that would grow around the University of California campus....
October 2007 -
Commemorative Bowl -
The Alumni Association of the University of California has over the years issued three different sets of commemorative china displaying scenes of campus life, ranging from buildings, professors, benefactors and famous alumni, to traditional events such as the Senior Pilgrimage and the Burial of Bourdon and Minto...
September 2007 -
District Attorney Flip Book -
Published in 1941, Mr. District Attorney on the Job is based on a long-running radio program and comic book series (see Object of the Month February 2007). It was loosely based on the early career of New York Governor Thomas Dewey, who in 1948 would be the Republican candidate for President (selecting Earl Warren, '14 as his running mate)...