John W. Douglas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Woolman Douglas (August 15, 1921 – June 2, 2010) was an American attorney and civil rights advocate, who pushed the cause in private practice and during the 1960s as a United States Assistant Attorney General.
Douglas was born in Philadelphia, and later moved with his family to Chicago. His father, Paul Douglas, was an economics professor who would later represent Illinois in the United States Senate for three terms. His mother, Dorothy was an economics and sociology professor.[1]
He earned his undergraduate degree in 1943 from Princeton University, where he received the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest honor bestowed on an undergraduate. After leaving college he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he saw service during World War II as an officer on PT boats. After completing his military service he was awarded a degree in law from Yale Law School in 1948 and earned a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1950.[1]
After completing his degree at Oxford, he was a law clerk for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Harold Hitz Burton in 1951 and 1952.
