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Drew S. Days, III
Gender:
Male
Ethnicity:
African-American
Biographical/Historical note:
Drew. S. Days III was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 29, 1941. He earned a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in 1963, and a law degree from Yale Law School in 1966. Days then moved to Chicago where he fought housing discrimination against minorities. At twenty-seven, he joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in Honduras. When he returned to the United States he went to work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Under this position he met Griffin Bell, who was later appointed attorney general under President Jimmy Carter. Bell offered Days a position in the Justice Department, and he became the first African American to head the civil rights division. When Carter's presidential term ended, Days became a professor at Yale Law School, where he was the first African American faculty member. Days was appointed solicitor general of the United States under President Bill Clinton in 1993. In 1990 he was awarded the Judge Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award. After leaving Clinton's administration, he continued teaching at Yale and joined Morrison & Foerster LLP as the head of the Supreme Court and appellate practice.