William Augustus Bootle, 102; Issued String of Historic Civil Rights Rulings in the 1960s
LA Times
Retired U.S. District Judge William Augustus Bootle, who issued a string of historic civil rights rulings in the 1960s, including the order allowing blacks to enter the University of Georgia, died Tuesday at his home in Macon, Ga. He was 102.
Dee Mitchell, administrative assistant at Snow’s Memorial Chapel, confirmed Bootle’s death.
Among Bootle’s rulings were ones integrating buses and school systems and ensuring blacks’ place on voter rolls. Macon’s federal courthouse was named for him in 1998.
Bootle “took the lead in bringing about the elimination of segregation in the field of education and otherwise,” Carl Sanders, Georgia’s governor from 1963 to 1967, said Tuesday.
“At the time, most politicians didn’t appreciate his attitude and his decisions,” said Sanders, 79.
“But in the long run, when you look back on the result of what he was trying to do, you can’t help but admit and admire the courage and the legal fortitude that he expressed at that particular time in the history of our state and the country.”
