There was plenty of legal firepower and history on display as the Tarrant County Bar Association honored two 100-year-old attorneys with more than 140 years of practicing law between them at the organization’s Tarrant County Legal Legends luncheon.

The two people honored on October 15 were Judge L. Clifford Davis, the legendary civil rights attorney who faced discrimination in the 1950s and was not allowed to join the bar that now honors him; and Kleber Miller, co-founder of Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller, whose mantel is adorned with every legal award available, as well as many honors for community service.

Both recently turned 100; Miller on August 11 and Davis on October 12.

Miller grew up in a small rural community outside Austin; He often rode horses to school until his family moved to the capital. He served in the Navy during World War II and served in the South Pacific.

Following his military service, Miller graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1951 and began working as an assistant district attorney in Travis County. A friend told him about the opportunity to serve as an attorney for the Santa Fe Railroad (now BNSF), and he moved to Fort Worth in 1952. In 1968, he decided to form Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & & with several other attorneys. Miller, which has become a legal powerhouse Locally and around the state.

During his seven-decade career, Miller gained a reputation as an advocate for ethical standards for lawyers in Texas. As president of the State Bar of Texas in 1967, he guided the bar on controversial issues such as legal specialization and the appointment of lay members to the board. In 2005, Miller received the Texas Bar Foundation’s 50 Year Outstanding Lawyer Award.

Miller said he decided to retire from the legal profession on his 98th birthday “to calm down.” “I enjoyed every minute of it,” he said of his career.

He also had some advice for young lawyers.

“I would tell them to consider law as a profession,” he said. “Many people see this as a job. The practice of law is a profession and they must live by the idea of ​​serving others. It has nothing to do with the legal profession. “It has to do with your career and the kind of person you are.”

Davis grew up in Arkansas in a family that believed in education. He graduated from Howard University with a law degree in 1949. He applied to the University of Arkansas School of Law but was denied entry due to discrimination. He opened his own law firm and in 1954 began working with then-attorney Thurgood Marshall of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on what became Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas., U.S. Supreme Court case ruling that state laws requiring racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

Davis moved to Texas in the mid-1950s and helped lead the pursuit of school desegregation in the state, filing federal lawsuits that eventually resulted in the integration of public schools in Fort Worth and Mansfield. His case The idea of ​​integrating Mansfield schools in 1956 has been examined recently because it occurred a year before the better-known incident in Little Rock. Unlike the Little Rock case, President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not intervene in Mansfield. Then-Texas Governor Allan Shivers sent the Texas Rangers to prevent integration. Black students attended other schools, and the district did not integrate until 1965.

Michael P. Heiskell, an attorney with Davis’ firm Johnson, Vaughn & Heiskell, said Davis “acted with professionalism, dignity and courtesy” despite all the conflict and opposition he faced.

“This has stood the test of time,” he said. “You taught me this. This man is an example of courage.”

In addition to his legal career, Davis worked to establish the Tarrant County College system and served as a trusted mentor to countless attorneys and judges in Texas. Davis became the first Black judge elected in Tarrant County in 1984 and served until 2004.

He has seen many things change over the years. In 2017, the University of Arkansas School of Law awarded Davis an honorary Doctor of Laws degree—71 years after he refused to accept it.

Bob Francis is the business editor of the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected]. News decisions at The Fort Worth Report are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy Here.

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