School Desegregation Judge Dies in Phillly

Louis Pollak, a federal judge who helped work on the pivotal school-desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, has died at his Mt. Airy home

Louis Pollak, a federal judge who helped work on the pivotal school-desegregation case Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, has died. He was 89.

Pollak, a U.S. district judge, died Tuesday at his West Mount Airy home, according to the federal district court.

Born in New York City on Dec. 7, 1922, Pollak was graduated by Harvard University in 1943 and Yale Law School in 1948, where he was later dean before moving to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was also dean.

Pollak and William T. Coleman worked with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in writing briefs about school desegregation cases that culminated in the 1954 ruling that said state laws requiring separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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