Judge Earl Gilliam

Federal Judge and Educator
Earl Ben Gilliam was born 1931 in Clovis, New Mexico. Gilliam spent most of his boyhood Oklahoma City before his family moved to San Diego in 1941. At the end of WWII, his father opened the Louisiana Fish Market in the heart of the city’s Black community in Southeast San Diego. Gilliam spent many after-school hours assisting the family business while attending San Diego High School.

After graduating from San Diego State College with a degree in accounting, Gilliam entered the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco in 1953, passing the bar exam in 1957, after which he returned to San Diego and worked for the district attorney’s office. He resigned in 1961 and went into private practice.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gilliam distinguished himself in the arenas of community and professional service as a member of the city’s Interracial Council, among other positions. He also held teaching positions at the Western State University Law School, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and at UCSD. His high standing in Southeast San Diego, and his connections in the Democratic Party undoubtedly helped Gilliam to become the first Black judge in San Diego County when Gov. Brown named him to fill a vacancy on the San Diego Municipal Court in 1963.

In 1975 he became the first African American to serve as a judge of the Superior Court for the State of California. President Jimmy Carter appointed Gilliam to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in 1980. Gilliam presided over some of the most sensational and far reaching cases in San Diego in the post-war era, among them the 1985 trial of attorney Phillip A. DeMassa (United States v. DeMassa) on charges relating to drug smuggling and his connection with the notorious Coronado Company.

Blessed with a keen intellect necessary to untangle and explain legal complexities, Gilliam also possessed a warm and gregarious personality and was widely revered by many while both on and away from the bench. He was particularly outspoken on matters concerning racial equality, women’s rights, and youth education and guidance. Members of the Association of Black Attorneys of San Diego County were so impressed with his accomplishments that in 1982 they renamed their group the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association–a rare honor for someone still living.

In his closing years on the bench he received a host of honors and recognitions including being named San Diego County Bar Association Legal Professional of the Year, garnering the National Bar Association Wiley A. Branton Award, and the NAACP Civil Rights Pioneer Award. Following his death in 2001, a memorial plaque and bust of Gilliam was enshrined in the San Diego Hall of Justice.
Submitted by Robert Fikes, Jr.