June 25, 1996

ELBERT PARR TUTTLE, LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS JUDGE, DEAD AT 98

ATLANTA (AP) -- Elbert Parr Tuttle, a former federal appeals court chief judge whose key civil rights rulings included one that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, has died at age 98.

Tuttle died of kidney failure Sunday at a hospital in his hometown.

As chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans from 1960 to 1967, Tuttle presided over civil rights cases at a time when Southern legislators vowed to defy moves toward desegregation.

The Tuttle-led court in June 1962 reversed a lower court's decision and ordered the University of Mississippi to accept its first black student, James Meredith.

In 1963, acting on his authority as chief judge, Tuttle ordered the Birmingham (Ala.) Board of Education to readmit 1,081 students who had been suspended or expelled for taking part in civil rights demonstrations.

The morning after the Birmingham ruling, President John F. Kennedy announced a new round of civil rights initiatives that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Tuttle, a Republican, was appointed to the 5th Circuit by President Eisenhower in August 1954. He had served previously as general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department under Eisenhower.

Tuttle became a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in 1981 after the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction was split. He retired last year as a senior judge.

A native of Pasadena, Calif., Tuttle moved to Hawaii when he was 9. He graduated from Cornell University in 1918 and earned a law degree from the Ivy League school in 1923.