Death of Judge Francis Ellis Rivers

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- Press Releases
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- LDF
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- 72af1920-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Death of Judge Francis Ellis Rivers, 1975. 72af1920-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ad608e1e-333e-40b4-a8d9-b5e2c6590584/death-of-judge-francis-ellis-rivers. Accessed June 18, 2025.

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from: Norman Bloomfield
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

212 - 586-8397

NEWYORK, TES July"28 - Judge Francis Ellis Rivers, the first black Member of the Association Of the Bar of the City of New York and the first Member of his ¥ace to become a City Court Judge, died teday—in Mount Sinai Hospital, Judge.Rivers Was.82.years old.

Judge Rivers was born in Kansas City, Kan. on July 30, 1893, was graduated from Yale University in 1915, and received his law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1922, During World war I, he serveg as a Lieutenant in the Meuse~Argonne offensive.

In 1930, Judge Rivers served be Member of the New York Sta and in 1938 was appointedGssistant district _attorne Sf ounty of New York

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—— ——

by Thomas Dewey. He Yemained in that office until 1943, when he was electeq Justice of the City Court of New York for a term of ten years, commencing

Coe ames =
c January 1, 1944,

the Republican, Democratic ang Liberal Parties, and was reelected by a large plurality. He retired as Judge of the Civil Court in 1963, and in eae eee years served as vice President of the New York Bar Association, ang Chairman of its Special Committee on Civil Rights.
At the time of his death, ke was hearing examiner for the Waterfront Commission, a member of the Public Employment Relations Board, trial examiner

Of the Board of Education of New York Ci ty, and a member of the New York and

(more)

‘New Jersey Mediation Boards.

Judge Rivers also was treasurer of the Yale Alumni Class of 1915,

referee for disciplinary matters of the Appellate Division (First Department),

a member of the boards of Freedom House, Brotherhood-in-Action, and the

New York Association for the Blind. In addition, he was a member of long

standing of the Sigma Phi Pi Fraternity.

Surviving are his widow, Alroy Spencer, and his ¢ Eleanor R.

Wheatland of New York City, and two nephews, Robert Rivers and Mark Rivers, Jr.

7/29/75

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Death of Judge Francis Ellis Rivers

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