William B. Bryant

Born in Wetumpka, Alabama, Bryant attended local schools. His parents encouraged his education and he studied political science at Howard University, a historically black college, graduating with an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1932. Bryant earned his Bachelor of Laws from Howard University School of Law in 1936, graduating first in his class.[1] Following law school, Bryant served as chief research assistant to Ralph Bunche, then Chair of the Department of Political Science at Howard, while Bunche worked with Gunnar Myrdal on his 1944 study of American race relations An American Dilemma.[2] Bryant served as an officer in the United States Army during World War II, from 1943 to 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.[3]

Bryant entered private practice in Washington, D.C., in 1948 and became a named partner at the firm headed by Charles Hamilton Houston, who had been dean of Howard Law School and served as legal counsel for the NAACP. At the time, the D.C. bar was still closed to African Americans.[1] Bryant left private practice to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia from 1951 to 1954. He was one of the first black prosecutors in federal court in the capital.[1] Returning to private practice in 1954, Bryant handled a number of prominent cases as a criminal defense lawyer. In 1957, he took a case to the United States Supreme Court, Mallory v. United States.[4] In the case, Andrew Roosevelt Mallory, 19, had confessed to rape after 7½ hours of interrogation in a police station. He was convicted and sentenced to death. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court overturned Mallory's conviction because his arraignment was not accomplished "without unnecessary delay," violating the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.[4] The case's holding formed the basis of the "McNabb-Mallory rule," a United States rule of evidence superseded by the broader protections later outlined by the Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona. While in private practice, Bryant also served as a law professor at Howard.[3]

Bryant was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 12, 1965, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by Judge David Andrew Pine. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 11, 1965, and received his commission the same day. He served as the first African American Chief Judge of the court from 1977 to 1981. He assumed senior status on January 31, 1982, and continued to hear cases until just a few months before his death.[3] His service was terminated on November 13, 2005, due to his death in Washington, D.C.[1]

In 2003, his fellow judges at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had requested that the new annex at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse be named after him. This proposal was signed into law by President George W. Bush two days before Judge Bryant's death in 2005.[1]

• William Benson Bryant at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.