{{Short description|American judge}} {{more footnotes needed|date=October 2018}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = James Benton Parsons | honorific_suffix = | image = FEDERAL JUDGE JAMES B. PARSONS IN THE FEDERAL BUILDING IN CHICAGO. HE WAS THE FIRST BLACK JUDGE APPOINTED TO THE U.S.... - NARA - 556248 (cropped).tif | alt = | caption = | office = Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | term_start = August 30, 1981 | term_end = June 19, 1993 | office1 = Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | term_start1 = 1975 | term_end1 = 1981 | predecessor1 = Edwin Albert Robson | successor1 = Frank James McGarr | office2 = Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois | term_start2 = August 30, 1961 | term_end2 = August 30, 1981 | nominator2 = | appointer2 = John F. Kennedy | predecessor2 = Philip Leo Sullivan | successor2 = Paul Edward Plunkett | office3 = Judge of the Superior Court of Cook County | term_start3 = 1960 | term_end3 = 1981 | predecessor3 = | successor3 = | pronunciation = | birth_name = James Benton Parsons | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|08|13}} | birth_place = Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|06|19|1911|08|13}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = Greenwood Cemetery<br>Decatur, Illinois | resting_place_coordinates = | citizenship = | party = | other_party = | height = | spouse = | partner = | relations = | children = | parents = | mother = | father = | relatives = | education = Millikin University (BA)<br>University of Chicago (MA, JD) | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | known_for = | salary = | net_worth = | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = <!--Embedded templates / Footnotes--> | footnotes = }}
'''James Benton Parsons''' (August 13, 1911 – June 19, 1993) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He was the first African American to serve as a judge in a U.S. district court.<ref name="chicagotribune.com">{{cite web |last1=Thornton |first1=Jerry |title=James B. Parsons, 1st Black U.S. Judge |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-06-21-9306210011-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |date=21 June 1993 |accessdate=February 11, 2020}}</ref>
==Early life, education and career==
Born on August 13, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri,<ref name="auto">{{FJC Bio|1844|nid=1386126|name=James Benton Parsons<!--(1911–1993)-->}}</ref> his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where his father was an evangelist and missionary with the Disciples of Christ Church.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} The family subsequently lived in Lexington, Kentucky, Dayton, Ohio and Bloomington, Indiana, before settling in Decatur, Illinois<ref name="DT">{{cite news |last1=MarK W. |first1=Sorenson |title=Decatur's James Benton Parsons And The Macon County Africian-American Trail |work=Decatur Tribune |publisher=Paul Osborne |date=4 February 2026}}</ref>. Parsons wanted to be an attorney by the time he was in junior high school.<ref name="DT"/> He was named "class orator" for Stephen Decatur High School class of 1929, the "first race student" to receive this honor.<ref name="DT"/> He was on the basketball team at Stephen Decatur High School coached by Gay Kintner, and also in the school band and orchestra.<ref name="DT"/> He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Millikin University in 1934.<ref name="auto"/>
Parsons first started working as acting head of music at Lincoln University in Missouri.<ref name="DT"/> He met Nathaniel Dett, a former teacher at Lincoln, who had returned for a guest performance. Dett subsequently offered Parsons a job at Bennett College, a historically black college in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was director of music. He wanted Parsons to re-score some of Dett's chorales.<ref>Parsons, James B. "The Unfinished Oral History of District Judge James Benton Parsons." Collins T. Fitzpatrick, ed. Typescript. Chicago: U of Chicago, DeAngelo Law Library Law School. May 1996.{{OCLC|35320772}}</ref> By 1939, Parsons had become director of instrumental music for Greensboro's Negro public schools, as the state had a segregated public school system.<ref name="DT"/> Under his direction, the band at James B. Dudley High School became known throughout the state for its expert musicianship and precision marching.<ref name="DT"/>
==World War II military service==
During World War II, Parsons enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in May 1942.<ref name="auto"/> Serving as a Musician MUS1, he directed the U.S. Navy B-1 Fleet Band.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} The band was organized from a core of members of the bands at Dudley High School and North Carolina A&T State University.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} B-1 was composed of the first African Americans to serve in the modern Navy at a rank higher than messman.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} It was one of more than 100 bands of African Americans organized by the Navy during the war; the other bands all trained at Camp Robert Smalls.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} B-1 trained at Norfolk and was stationed at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where it was attached to the Navy's pre-flight school on the University of North Carolina campus.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}
In May 1944 the band was transferred to the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it was stationed at Manana Barracks.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} This held the largest posting of African-American servicemen in the world.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} While there, Parsons was selected for a panel of judges that was convened by the Navy to investigate the 1944 riot in Guam among Marines.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} This experience furthered his interest in studying law.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} Throughout his service, Parsons directed B-1, but he mustered out of the Navy in 1945 as a Musician 1st class, never having made the officer's grade. He and his men believed that he had earned that.<ref>Albright, Alex. ''The Forgotten First: B-1 and the Integration of the Modern Navy,'' Fountain, NC: R.A. Fountain, 2013</ref>
==Later education and career==
After the war, Parsons used the GI Bill{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} to earn his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1946, followed by a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1949.<ref name="auto"/> Parsons entered private practice in Chicago, Illinois from 1949 to 1951, also serving as an assistant corporation counsel during that time.<ref name="auto"/> He was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois, serving from 1951 to 1960.<ref name="auto"/> He was a judge of the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois from 1960 to 1961.<ref name="auto"/>
==Federal judicial service==
Parsons was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on August 10, 1961, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge Philip Leo Sullivan.<ref name="auto"/> He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 30, 1961, and received his commission the same day,<ref name="auto"/> becoming the first African American to serve as a U.S. district judge in a U.S. district court.<ref name="chicagotribune.com"/> He served as Chief Judge from 1975 to 1981 and served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1975 to 1978.<ref name="auto"/> He assumed senior status on August 30, 1981.<ref name="auto"/> His service terminated on June 19, 1993, due to his death in Chicago.<ref name="auto"/> He was interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Decatur.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}}
== See also == * List of African-American federal judges * List of African-American jurists * List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States * List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Illinois
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * {{FJC Bio|1844|nid=1386126|name=James Benton Parsons<!--(1911–1993)-->}}
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=Philip Leo Sullivan}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois}}|years=1961–1981}} {{s-aft|after=Paul Edward Plunkett}} {{s-bef|before=Edwin Albert Robson}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois}}|years=1975–1981}} {{s-aft|after=Frank James McGarr}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, James Benton}} Category:1911 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Lawyers from Kansas City, Missouri Category:African-American judges Category:Illinois state court judges Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Category:United States district court judges appointed by John F. Kennedy Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:University of Chicago Law School alumni Category:United States Navy sailors Category:Military personnel from Missouri Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Assistant United States attorneys Category:United States military musicians Category:Judges of the Superior Court of Cook County Category:20th-century African-American lawyers