Walter A. Gordon

Walter Arthur Gordon ( born October 10, 1894 in Atlanta, Georgia, † April 2, 1976 in Berkeley, California ) was an American lawyer and politician. Between 1955 and 1958 he was governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Career

In 1904 Walter Gordon came with his family to Riverside, California, where he attended the Polytechnic High School. After a subsequent law studies at the University of California at Berkeley, and his admission to the bar he began in 1922 to work in this profession. He was the first African American took a special law degree at this university. Gordon was also sporty in boxing, wrestling, and especially in football active. Later, he was an assistant coach in the sport and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He also worked for some time as a police officer in Berkeley. Until 1930 he worked simultaneously as a lawyer, police officer and football coach. Then he gave to the police profession. In the 1930s, he was regional president of the NAACP in Berkeley. During the so-called Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in 1943, he was appointed by Governor Earl Warren to head a task force - with the task to end the violence. In the same year he gave up his job as a coach. Also in 1943 he was a member of the Parole Board of the State of California, which he led for nine years. His legal practice, he gave up in 1944.

In 1955 Walter Gordon was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the new governor of the Virgin Islands. This office he held until 1958. Thereafter, he served there for ten years as a district judge. He died on April 2, 1976 in Berkeley.