Breaking Barriers: A View from the Bench

About the Author

With his election to City Court, Freddie Pitcher Jr. was the first African American elected to a judgeship in Baton Rouge. He was also the first Black person elected to both the 19th Judicial District Court and the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal. Upon his retirement from the bench in 1997, and after a six-year stint as a partner in a major law firm, he served as Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center from 2003 until 2015. Pitcher is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the G. Leon Netterville Award for Outstanding Achievement in Law from Southern University and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society.