New York, NY, July 26, 1999…The Anti-Defamation League mourns the passing of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., a legendary figure in the civil rights movement and one of the most influential judges of the 20^th Century.

Judge Johnson’s rulings against segregation and discrimination and in favor of equal rights for minorities have been well documented, and he richly deserved the many honors bestowed upon him, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the American Bar Association’s first Thurgood Marshall Award.

We also remember and honor Judge Johnson for his personal courage in the face of hate. As an Alabama judge repeatedly ruling in favor of civil rights claims in the deep South, Judge Johnson was the target of an ongoing and substantial campaign of threats and harassment by the Ku Klux Klan, and he absolutely refused to be intimidated. Through the years, the judge defied death threats, voluminous hate mail, a cross burned on his front lawn and the firebombing of his mother’s home. He would not be cowed, or deterred from following his convictions. Standing up to extremists, his legacy is reflected in the life he breathed into the Bill of Rights.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.