FOREWORD

Written by The Honorable Chief Justice U.W. Clemon

      In 1990, U. W. Clemon was nominated by Former President Jimmy Carter to serve as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama. Clemon's nomination to the federal bench was highly controversial and widely publicized. Despite some opposition, he received the unanimous vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate. Clemon's became Alabama's first black federal judge. In 1999, Judge Clemon became the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Alabama, which consists of eleven district judges, six magistrates' judges, and five bankruptcy judges.
      Judge Clemon is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in 1980, honored him with its "Drum Major Award." Six years later, the National Bar Association ("NBA") bestowed on him its highest honor: The C. Francis Stradford Award. The NBA's Judicial Council, consisting of black judges of the United States, gave him its William H. Hastie Award for "exceptional legal scholarship" in 1987. In 1998, the National Association for Affirmative Action bestowed on him the Rosa Parks Award.  In April of 1999, Columbia University Law School honored Judge Clemon with its coveted Paul Robeson Award.