Federal Judge Barefoot Sanders dies at 83

[sonias]

09/21/08
Federal Judge Barefoot Sanders dies at 83
By MATT CURRY

DALLAS — U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders, who presided over more than two decades of litigation to desegregate Dallas schools, died Sunday. He was 83.

Sanders died of natural causes at his home surrounded by his wife and four children, said Karen Mitchell, U.S. district clerk for the Northern District of Texas.

Sanders, who served in the Justice Department during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, was senior district judge for the Northern District. He was appointed by President Carter in 1979.

"Barefoot was such a special person because he was comfortable with the powerful but cared about everyone," Chief Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater said in a written statement. "On his way to his chambers to issue an important ruling, he would stop to ask the court security officer — whom he knew by name — about his mother's surgery. And he really cared about both of them."

(snip)

"It was, to some extent, hostile, but not to the extent of being violent," Sanders said in January 2006 upon receiving the Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Award.

Rest in peace, Judge Sanders.

Sonia