Roth, Stephen T., 1908-1974.

Roth was born April 21, 1908 in Hungary. He received a Ph. B degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1931 and a J.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1935. He served in the U.S. Army, Criminal Investigations Division, in North Africa and Italy, 1943-1945. Roth served as the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney of Genesee County, 1937-1938; Prosecuting Attorney of Genesee County, 1941-1942; Attorney General, State of Michigan, 1949-1950; and Circuit Court judge of Michigan, 1952-1962. He was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. District judge of the Eastern District of Michigan on May 7, 1962, in which position he served until his untimely death in 1974. He is best remembered as the judge who ordered the Detroit school desegregation, which included major cross-district busing in Detroit in 1972. Because of his ruling he was referred to as "the most unpopular man in Detroit." He ruled that the Detroit Board of Education was operating a de jure (by law) segregated school system. The original case was brought against the Detroit Board of Education by the NAACP. Roth died on July 11, 1974. He was married and had five children.