Harold A. Stevens papers

1907-1990 [bulk 1936-1990]

The late Justice Harold Stevens achieved several historic milestones throughout his career; the most significant being the fact that he was the first Roman Catholic African American to hold several judicial positions in successively higher courts in New York State. Initially appointed to the New York State Supreme Court (1957), eleven years later (1968), he was appointed to the NYS Appellate Division, then to the NYS Court of Appeals, (1974) and lastly, Stevens was appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department from which he retired in 1977.

Stevens' accomplishments began in 1936 when he became the first Roman Catholic African-American graduate of Boston College Law School, where he was an honor student and vice-president of his class. In a 1958 interview, Stevens said he had decided to become a lawyer after a 1926 racial incident in which a black women and her two brothers, accused of killing a sheriff, were dragged from the county jail in Aiken, South Carolina, towed through town behind a car, shot, and mutilated.

Harold A. Stevens was born in October 1907 on a 1,000 acre farm owned by his father, William F. Stevens, on John's Island, South Carolina. His mother, Lilla L. (Johnson) was a public school teacher and his grandfather attended the University of South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. According to a New York Timesarticle, his grandfather was expelled by segregationist Governor Wade Hampton, who stated that no colored person would graduate from college in his state.

As an undergraduate student, Stevens studied at Claflin College and graduated in 1930 from Benedict College, which later bestowed upon him his first honorary Doctor of Law degree. He passed the state bar exam in South Carolina, Massachusetts, and New York. In 1938 Stevens married Ella C. Myers, a childhood friend, and they relocated to New York City. Shortly thereafter, in the late 1930s and early 1940s Stevens taught labor law at the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. In 1943 he enlisted in the United States Army. After World War II ended, he served as Special Counsel to President Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) and arranged for hearings on railroad issues regarding blacks. He also served on the provisional committee to organize black locomotive firemen.

For a time, Stevens clerked for Assemblyman William T. Andrews, until he became partner (1938-1942) of Andrews & Stevens. In 1946 Stevens ran for and was elected to the Assembly, becoming the first Roman Catholic African-American assemblyman to represent the predominantly white thirteenth Assembly District in Albany, New York. While an assemblyman, Stevens was also a partner in Dyett & Stevens (1942-1948) and Brandenburg & Stevens (1948-1950). He resigned as assemblyman in the early 1950's when he was elected to the New York State Court of General Sessions (1951); his first judicial position.

In early 1952 the novice Justice Stevens became recognized for his court decorum and impartiality when he mediated a trial involving the actress, Tallulah Bankhead, who had accused her maid, Eveleen Ramsey Cronin, of stealing $5,000 from her. The jury found Cronin guilty of grand larceny, but Stevens suspended her sentence. Three years later Governor Averell Harriman appointed him Justice of the State Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Thomas J. Corcoran. In the fall of 1955, Stevens was elected a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court for a fourteen year term. Three years later, Governor Harriman named him an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division.

In 1963 Governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed Stevens a Justice of the Appellate Division, and reappointed him in 1968. From 1969 when Governor Rockefeller initially designated Stevens a justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, to 1973 Stevens had the distinction of being the highest ranked Roman Catholic African American in a state judicial system. Also during this period Stevens further distinguished himself by undertaking a number of projects, including a reorganization of the court system and a program to build new courthouses for which he was acknowledged as being the guiding force. In addition, he created, developed and implemented a plan to improve the administration of the local and state trial and appellate judicial system.

Stevens devised a procedure, according to one report, that once implemented streamlined malpractice cases by presenting them to a special panel of physicians, lawyers, and judges. The mediation process resulted in dispositions at the pretrial stage of litigation, with diminished expense in time, effort, and money to the parties and to the courts. Stevens was also instrumental in creating the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), a nonprofit organization established in 1971 to provide assistance and consultative services to improve state and local trial and appellate courts. He was a charter board member from 1971 to 1972 and a member of the Finance Committee from 1973 to 1974.

In 1973, Stevens was appointed, for an interim term, to the Court of Appeals by Governor Malcolm Wilson. In mid-1973, although the Democratic Party favorite among many voters, he was defeated in the primary election for a full fourteen year term to the Court of Appeals by Democrat Jacob Fuchsberg. Despite the defeat by Fuchsberg in the primary, Stevens campaigned and was endorsed by the Republican, Liberal, and Conservative parties in what became a controversial general election. He lost that election, but in late 1973, Governor Wilson appointed him an Associate Justice to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the First Judicial Department. The next year, Governor Hugh Carey designated Stevens a Presiding Justice of the First Department of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court succeeding Justice Owen McGivern, who had resigned. Stevens retired from the judicial system in early 1977 and died of a heart attack in late 1990.

Early in his judicial career Stevens received a Papal award, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, from Pope Pius XII for his work with Catholic groups. He was a board member of several organizations including, the Catholic Interracial Council of New York; Citizens Planning Council; Catholic Club; Catholic Youth Organization; Grand Street Boys Association; and the Board of Governors of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers. He was President of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York; a committee member of the New York County Lawyers Association; a member of the Committee on Banks, Local Finance and Public Institutions; a Life Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and counsel to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.