About
U.W. Clemon has been a fighter for civil rights for most of his life. The son of migrated Mississippi sharecroppers, he was born in Fairfield in 1943. At the age of thirteen, he witnessed an act of police brutality against a friend, which directly inspired his decision to become a civil rights lawyer.
He is a product of the segregated Jefferson County public schools. At Miles College, he was one of the leaders of the 1962 selective buying campaign which led to a confrontation with Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor. The following year, he worked with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Birmingham demonstrations, and desegregated the Birmingham Public Library. He graduated from Miles College in 1965 as valedictorian of his class.
With a law degree from Columbia University, he returned to Alabama in 1968 and entered the practice of law. For the next dozen years, he represented black plaintiffs in major civil rights litigation against the Jefferson County School Board, United States Steel Corporation, Pullman Standard Corporation, and the City of Birmingham. One of the first two blacks elected to the Alabama State Senate since Reconstruction, he chaired the Rules Committee and the Judiciary Committee. He and Governor George Wallace battled on several civil rights issues.
In 1980, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the first black federal judge in the history of the State, with unanimous approval by the United States Senate. He was Chief Judge of the federal district court in North Alabama; implementing a more inclusive jury plan and judicial workforce. His best known case resulted in the enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Since his retirement from the federal bench in 2009, he has resumed the practice of law. His most recent cases include the Gardendale school case and the Alabama legislative reapportionment case.
He is married to Barbara Lang Clemon, a retired school teacher. His children are Addine Michelle Clemon, a lawyer; and H. Isaac Clemon, a musician. He is a deacon of the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, a 33rd degree Prince Hall Mason, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.