Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph was edited for publication purposes. State Supreme Court Justice Thomas P. White was born in Lincoln Heights, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, on September 28, 1888. He became an attorney and in 1913 became a judge of Los Angeles police court at the age of 25, the youngest judge in the country at the time. He was known for his concern for the underpriveleged and the poor. He retired from the bench to become a criminal defense attorney, but in 1931, Governor James Rolph appointed him as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. In 1949 Governor Earl Warren appointed him presiding judge of the District court of appeals. In 1959, Governor Edmund Brown named him an associate justice of the California State Supreme Court. He retired in 1962. White died on February 7, 1968. The Criminal Courts Building, completed in 1972, was renamed the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in 2002, after Clara S. Foltz, the first female lawyer on the west coast of the United States and the first to propose the creation of a public defender's office. Plaque near the Temple Street entrance of the Criminal Courts Building in Los Angeles honors State Supreme Court Justice Thomas P. White. The plaque has a likeness of Judge White with an inscription underneath. The inscription reads "Thomas P. White, 1888-1968, Supreme Court Justice. From city police court and at every judicial level to Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of California, he faithfully served all the people of this state with integrity, understanding and wisdom. He was born, lived, educated, and died within a mile of this courthouse. Always he dedicated his life to serving the people of California." It is on a stone pedestal in front of a brick wall.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 13 cm. Photographic prints
White, Thomas P.--Monuments Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center (Los Angeles, Calif.) Plaques, plaquettes--California--Los Angeles Judges--Monuments--California--Los Angeles Brick walls Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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