Frank Minis Johnson Jr. (October 30, 1918 – July 23, 1999) was a United States district judge and United States Circuit Judge serving 1955 to 1999 on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He made landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South. In the words of journalist and historian Bill Moyers, Judge Johnson "altered forever the face of the South." Early life, education and career Johnson was born in 1918 and grew up in Haleyville in northern Alabama, a longtime independent-minded part of the state. Winston County had opposed secession from the Union during the American Civil War. While a student, he was asked by a staunchly Democratic classmate why he insisted upon being a Republican, to which Johnson replied that there were "so few of us that one day I might be a federal judge." Another classmate George C. Wallace, future governor of the state, overheard the remark and replied, "Well, that'll be the day. I'll be governor by then." Wallace would prove to be Johnson's bête noire during the civil rights era of the 1960s. Johnson graduated from the University of Alabama and later the University of Alabama School of Law with a Bachelor of Laws in 1943, and was admitted to the bar. He married Ruth Jenkins, a classmate from the University of Alabama. Johnson served in the United States Army in Europe during World War II, while his wife Ruth served in the WAVES as an adviser to Hollywood directors making films about the war. After military service, Johnson entered private law practice in Jasper, Alabama from 1946 to 1953. Unlike most white voters of the time in Alabama, he became active in politics with the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to the 1948 Republican National Convention. He managed Alabama's "Veterans for Eisenhower" group during the 1952 campaign. Johnson was known as a foe of the Democratic Party's segregationist policies. He was appointed as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1953 to 1955, during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. Federal trial judicial service Johnson received a recess appointment from President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 22, 1955, to a seat on the United States District Court for