William Thaddeus Coleman Jr.
[1] One of seven black students at Germantown High School, Coleman was suspended for cursing at a teacher after she praised his honors presentation by saying, "Someday, William, you will make a wonderful chauffeur.[1] Coleman's swim team coach wrote him a strong letter of recommendation and he was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a double major in political science and economics.[4] Coleman was accepted to the Harvard Law School but left in 1943 to enlist in the United States Army Air Forces, failing in his attempt to join the Tuskegee Airmen.[7] Thurgood Marshall, then the chief counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, recruited Coleman to be one of the lead strategists and coauthor of the legal brief in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.Coleman was also a member of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Committee on Government Employment Policy (1959–1961) and a consultant to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1963–1975).Coleman reported the results of his investigation and interview with Castro directly to Commission Chairman Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the United States.[1] In December 1976, Coleman rejected consumer activists' pressure for a federal mandate on automobile airbags and instead announced a two-year demonstration period favored by the auto industry.On leaving the department, Coleman returned to Philadelphia and subsequently became a partner in the Washington office of the Los Angeles-based law firm O'Melveny & Myers.In 1983, with the election quickly approaching, the Reagan administration stopped supporting the IRS's position against Bob Jones University that overtly discriminatory groups were ineligible for certain tax exemptions.
United States Court of Military Commission ReviewGeorge W. BushScott SillimanUnited States Secretary of TransportationGerald FordClaude BrinegarBrock AdamsPhiladelphiaAlexandria, VirginiaRepublicanWilliamHardinUniversity of PennsylvaniaHarvard UniversitySecond lieutenantUnited States Army Air CorpsWorld War IIattorneysecond African AmericanUnited States Cabinetcivil rightsGermantown, PhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUnderground RailroadW.E.B. DuBoisLangston HughesGermantown High Schoolsumma cum laudePhi Beta KappaPi Gamma MuAlpha Phi AlphaHarvard Law SchoolUnited States Army Air ForcesTuskegee Airmencourts-martialHarvard Law Reviewmagna cum laudelaw clerkHerbert F. GoodrichU.S. Court of Appeals for the Third CircuitU.S. Supreme CourtFelix FrankfurterElliot RichardsonPaul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & GarrisonThurgood MarshallNational Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleBrown v. Board of Educationracial segregationNAACP Legal Defense and Educational FundDwight D. EisenhowerU.S. Arms Control and Disarmament AgencyWarren Commissionassassination of John F. KennedyFidel CastroPrime Minister of CubaEarl WarrenChief Justice of the United StatesMcLaughlin v. FloridaUnited Nations General AssemblyPepsiCoChase Manhattan BankPan American World AirwaysUnion League of PhiladelphiaPresidentCabinetSecretary of TransportationDepartment of TransportationNational Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationEast Liberty, OhiosupersonicConcordePort Authority of New York and New JerseyairbagsJimmy Carter1976 electionWashingtonLos AngelesO'Melveny & MyersGarcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit AuthorityBob Jones UniversityBob Jones University v. United StatesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesPresidential Medal of FreedomBill ClintonTWA Flight 800Bates CollegeWilliams CollegeGettysburg CollegeBoston UniversityAmerican Philosophical SocietyAmerican Academy of Achievementstate funeral of Gerald FordWashington, D.C.William Thaddeus Coleman IIIGeneral Counsel of the ArmyFlavia ColganHardin ColemanBoston University School of EducationAlzheimer's diseaseAlexandriaVirginiaList of African-American United States Cabinet membersList of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2)The New York TimesUnited States Department of DefenseGeorge P. ShultzWayback MachineC-SPANUnited States secretaries of transportationBrinegarGoldschmidtBurnleySkinnerSlaterMinetaPetersLaHoodButtigiegVice PresidentNelson RockefellerSecretary of StateHenry KissingerSecretary of the TreasuryWilliam E. SimonSecretary of DefenseJames R. Schlesinger