Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Legendary U.S. District Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr.

Legendary U.S. District Judge Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr., who oversaw the desegregation of Dallas schools, directed the overhaul of state schools for mentally retarded people and served as a legislative counsel to President Lyndon Johnson, died Sunday at his Dallas home after battling an infection. He was 83.

Presidents confided in him, federal judges leaned on his wisdom, and family members remembered a man with an unflinching sense of justice.

"He was truly larger than life," U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle said Sunday. "From the core, he symbolized civil rights. He knew that fairness took backbone, and that's why he was able to make history."

 As an assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, he was credited with helping pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a Texas legislator, he helped write the Texas Mental Health Code. And as a federal judge, he declared Dallas' segregated schools illegal.

"He was a wonderful man and a great judge," said Ed Cloutman, plaintiffs' attorney in the case that changed the racial makeup of the city's schools. "And he had an ability to do things that were very difficult, when the law supported them. He will be missed."

Judge Sanders, who retired in 2006, was revered for his intellect and compassion.

"Barefoot was such a special person because he was comfortable with the powerful but cared about everyone," said Sidney A. Fitzwater, chief district judge in the Northern District of Texas. "On his way to his chambers to issue an important ruling, he would stop and ask the court security officer – whom he knew by name – about his mother's surgery.

"Barefoot will be sorely missed, and the void he has left will not soon be filled."

 President John F. Kennedy appointed Judge Sanders as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas in 1961. President Jimmy Carter elevated him to the federal bench in 1979.

Judge Sanders graduated from North Dallas High School in 1942 and went on to serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve until 1946. He received his law degree from the University of Texas in 1950 and served three terms in the Texas Legislature. He married Jan Scurlock, who survives him, in 1952.

He is best known for overseeing a desegregation plan for the Dallas Independent School District from the 1980s until 2003.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk said Judge Sanders changed Dallas for the better and forever.

"I don't mean he was an activist in the sense that he did something he shouldn't have done," said Mr. Kirk. "He enforced the law. He made the city of Dallas stand up to the promise of America – education for all of its children and all of its people. I don't know that you can ask a judge to do any more than that."

Dallas lawyer Adelfa Callejo said Judge Sanders' courage showed through in his rulings.

"Judge Barefoot Sanders is one of the judicial intellectual giants. His commitment to justice for the disenfranchised was always unwavering," she said. "His life made a tremendous difference in our community."

Harold Barefoot Sanders III, a Los Angeles musician, said his father embodied toughness and resolve, even though he didn't fit the physical profile.

He remembered accompanying his dad out to the family farm north of Dallas to clear fences.

"There was my dad working hard and all bloody from the barbed wire," he said. "As a kid you look at your dad and it just seemed like he felt no pain."

He said his father was equally tough when it came to enforcing rules.

"We had a certain degree of freedom, but there was always accountability to the family and to yourself," he said. "He was always there to check on that. He was the rock."

Even so, he said his dad could never be described as rigid.

Despite his interest in politics and passion for the law, Judge Sanders did not push his children toward the professions that defined his life.

"He was an incredible questioner and an incredible listener," his son said. "But Dad never cared whether you wanted to be a judge or a lawyer, he honestly didn't care. He only cared that we were happy and focused."

Even without the push, Judge Sanders' eldest daughter, Janet Lea Sanders, entered law and is now a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. She remembered growing up in Washington, D.C., when her father was a legislative counsel to President Johnson.

Once, on an anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, LBJ came over to the house for a bowl of Texas chili.

"My dad pulled me aside and said, 'He doesn't like children to talk too much,' " his daughter said. "I didn't say a word."

She remembered a dinner party with Vice President Hubert Humphrey Jr. and the frequent visits by members of the Texas congressional delegation, who would hold court in their back yard.

"It was really an amazing time," she said.

Judge Sanders once said that working on federal voting rights legislation in Washington was the highlight of his career but that he is proud of his role in ending institutional segregation in Dallas.

"I'm not going to say racism is completely removed from the public arena," the judge told The Dallas Morning News. "Dallas did well. We were very slow to get there, but we came along."

On Sunday, Judge Sanders' colleagues savored memories at the courthouse – the talk of family vacations, politics and kids sports.

Judge Boyle said her friend also had a stubbornly patriotic side. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, Judge Sanders refused to evacuate the Dallas federal courthouse.

"He said that leaving would be exactly what the terrorists would want us to do," she said. "He was so much a patriot and so much an American, and so committed to freedom and civil rights, he wasn't going to budge. So, we stayed there until about 5 o'clock that day."

Judge Sanders' passing will leave a jagged hole in the heart of the city's legal community, Judge Boyle said. She offered advice for her colleagues.

"If you close your eyes, and you knew him and you loved him, you'll be able to smell that cigar smoke," she said. "And it'll make you smile."

Funeral services are planned for 4 p.m. Wednesday at Northaven United Methodist Church.

Judge Sanders is also survived by daughters Martha Kay Crockett of Dallas and Mary Frances Korsan of Santa Monica, Calif.; a sister, Martha Ann Schneider of Dallas; brother, Charles Addison Sanders of Durham, N.C.; and 10 grandchildren.