R. Eugene Pincham
R. Eugene Pincham (28 June 1925 - 3 April 2008) was a pioneering African-American civil rights attorney, judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, justice of the Appellate Court of Illinois, and ardent critic of the U.S. criminal justice system (also see Racial inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system). Known for his enrapturing oratory which drew on his
own personal struggles and those of African Americans, and his tireless advocacy on behalf of those who could less speak for themselves, he was regarded as a political and legal icon, and held as a role model by both both blacks and whites who came behind him.
Early life and education
Pincham was born in Chicago on 28 June 1925. His parents divorced seven months later and his mother moved with Pincham and his brother to Athens, Alabama. Pincham grew up there in impoverished circumstances and attended Trinity High School, a school begun by missionaries after the U.S. Civil War for the children of former slaves. Pincham graduated in 1941 with an interest in becoming a lawyer.
That same year Pincham returned to Chicago and took a job as a janitor in a hospital basement. Some time later, he enrolled in LeMoyne College in Memphis, Tennessee, a black college begun by white Congregationalist missionaries in 1862 to provide educational opportunity to then-recently-freed blacks. LeMoyne expelled Pincham for poor grades, but he took it as a lesson and reset his path. In 1947 he graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville with a Bachelor of Science in political science. A year later Pincham married his college sweetheart, Alzata C. Henry, and a few months afterward entered Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. While studying full-time at Northwestern, Pincham waited tables at Chicago's Palmer House Hotel and shined shoes. Despite this disadvantage, he earned his law degree in 1951. Pincham was the only black in a class of eighty.
Legal career
After graduation Pincham began private law practice in state and federal courts. Then in 1954 he was brought on with what later became the high-powered law firm of Evins, Pincham, Fowlkes and Cooper. In 1965 Pincham was admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1976, Pincham became a Circuit Court of Cook County judge and was assigned to the Criminal Division, where he served until 1984. He went on to become a justice of the Appellate Court of Illinois. There, Pincham gained a reputation as one who sought justice, irrespective without regard to status or wealth.
Pincham resigned from the bench in 1989 and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. In 1991, he became the Harold Washington Party's nominee for Mayor of Chicago. Although he lost, Pincham carried nineteen of the city's fifty wards with enormous support from African Americans.
Pincham was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a lifetime member of the NAACP. In retirement, Pincham lectured in trial and appellate techniques and advocacy. He was recipient of a variety of awards for his legal and community service and activism.
Pincham was also known for making his home a meeting place for those concerned to work for social justice on behalf of Chicagoans.
Death and memorial service
Pincham died of cancer on 3 April 2008 at the age of 82. His memorial service was held at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, officiated by the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright.