Sanders, Barefoot, 1925-2008

Barefoot Sanders, born Harold Barefoot Sanders, Jr., was a Federal Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas from 1979-2006, nominated by Jimmy Carter. He is most well known for overseeing the lawsuit to desegregate the Dallas Independent School District. Sanders had a long and distinguished career serving as a congressman in the Texas legislature, as a U.S. Attorney, as an assistant deputy attorney general, as legislative counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson, and as a Federal Judge.

Barefoot Sanders was born in 1925, attended North Dallas High School, graduating in 1942. Sanders served in the Navy during World War II (1943-1946) on a destroyer in the Pacific Theater. He underwent training at Mercer University in Georgia and Notre Dame in Indiana. Following, his time in the military, Sanders received an A.B. (1949) from the University of Texas and a J.D. (1950) from the University of Texas School of Law. While attending UT, Barefoot was elected student body president in 1947. Furthermore, Sanders was associated with many different organizations including, Phi Delta Theta, Blue Key, Phi Delta Phi, Phi Delta Kappa and the Texas Cowboys.

Following his graduation, Sanders went into practice with the Dallas law firm Clark, West, Keller, Sanders and Butler (1950-1961, 1969-1979). Sanders married Jan Scurlock in 1952 and they had four children together. He served on the Texas Legislature for three terms from 1953 to 1958. In 1960, Sanders was instrumental in helping the Kennedy-Johnson ticket win Texas. After the election, Kennedy appointed Sanders a United States attorney. During President Johnson’s terms, Sanders was Assistant Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General (1965-1967), and legislative counsel to President Johnson (1967-1968). Sander played a small part in the transfer of power from President’s Kennedy to Johnson, when he was asked to find Federal Judge Sarah Hughes to administer the oath of office to Johnson. As legislative counsel to the president, Sanders helped shepherd many Great Society initiatives through Congress, such as the Voting Rights Act. In 1968, before leaving office, President Johnson appointed Sanders as a Federal Appellate Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. However, Johnson’s term expired before Sanders’ confirmation by the Senate and Nixon nominated George McKinnon instead. In 1969, Sanders returned to private practice in Dallas. He ran for the United States Senate in 1972, but lost to John Tower as part of the Nixon landslide. In 1978 Sanders contemplated running again, but eventually decided against it.

Sanders returned to public service, in 1979 when President Carter appointed him to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Furthermore, he served as chief judge of the court from 1989-1995. During his time on the bench, Sanders oversaw the Tasby litigation, a desegregation plan for the Dallas Independent School District that lasted for decades until it was finally settled in 2003. During the litigation he ordered the construction of magnet schools and made most busing voluntary. Sanders also supervised the restructuring of the state hospitals for the mentally ill after a civil rights reform lawsuit, R.A.J. vs. TDMHMR. The restructuring improved living conditions and the treatment of patients in Texas’ eight state psychiatric hospitals. Sanders retired in 2006 and died of natural causes September 21, 2008 at the age of eighty-three.

Barefoot Sanders, born Harold Barefoot Sanders, Jr., was a Federal Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas from 1979-2006, nominated by Jimmy Carter.

He is most well known for overseeing the lawsuit to desegregate the Dallas Independent School District. Sanders had a long and distinguished career serving as a congressman in the Texas legislature, as a U.S. Attorney, as an assistant deputy attorney general, as legislative counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson, and as a Federal Judge.