BROWN, LLOYD ODOM

BROWN, LLOYD ODOM (12 Dec. 1928-3 May 1993) was the first African-American elected as a Cleveland Municipal Court judge and the second to sit as an Ohio Supreme Court Justice. He also served on Cuyahoga County's Common Pleas court and with the firm of Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brown moved at age 2 with his family to Cleveland. He attended Gladstone Elementary School and graduated from East Technical High School in 1946. After 4 years in the Coast Guard, Brown enrolled at Ohio State University and earned both a B.A. in political science and a law degree in 1955. Admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1956, he practiced with the Cleveland firm of Charles V. Carr & Associates.

Brown served as an Ohio Assistant Attorney General, 1958-1959, and as a trial lawyer in the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office, 1959-67. Brown was elected as a municipal court judge in 1967 where he instituted a $5 reduction in fines in traffic court for those found wearing a seat belt at the time the citation was issued, the first such program in the country.

Appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court by Governor John Gilligan in 1971, Brown served until defeated in the 1972 general election. In 1973 Gilligan appoined Brown as a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge. He remained on the bench until 1986 when he joined the firm of Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley where he remained until his death.

Lloyd and Phyllis Brown married in 195l. They had three children: Lloyd Jr., Raymond, and Leslie. Brown is buried in Highland Park Cemetery.