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[[underlined]] HIGGINBOTHAM, JR., A. LEON [[/underlined]]

Judge Higginbotham was born in 1928.  He received his Bachelor of Arts from Antioch College in 1950 and his Bachelor of Laws from the Yale University Law School in 1953.

He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1953 and appointed that year as Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia County.  He served in that position very briefly, turning to the private practice of law in Philadelphia in 1954.

In 1962, he became the first Negro to be appointed to the Federal Trade Commission.  He served with the Commission until January 1964, when he was appointed Judge of the U. S. District Court for Philadelphia.  In October 1977 he was appointed to the United Sates Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

He has been a member of the NAACP, Philadelphia branch, since 1959; and also served with the Pennsylvania Fair Employment Commission.  In 1968, he was appointed to President Johnson's National Commission on Violence.