W.A. 'Gus' Bootle Dies; Ordered University of Ga. to Desegregate

[davidinalameda]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36822-2005Jan25.html

W.A. "Gus" Bootle, 102, a federal judge who surged to national attention for presiding over civil rights cases and ordering the University of Georgia to desegregate its campus, died Jan. 25 at his home in Macon, Ga. He had congestive heart failure.

For years, Judge Bootle was an easy-mannered, skeet-shooting Georgian known chiefly for his "firm but friendly" treatment of moonshiners. He then entered the controversial terrain of racial justice.

He was reportedly the first district court judge to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction. Such an embrace was in direct contrast to strong political pressure from the white establishment. Sen. J. Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who was then a Democrat, had filibustered the bill for more than a day.