Legal Career
He was in private practice of law in Washington, DC from 1930 to 1933. From 1933 to 1937 he served as assistant solicitor for the Department of the Interior, advising the agency on racial issues.
In 1937, President Roosevelt appointed Hastie to the United States District Court for the Virgin Islands, making Hastie the first African-American Federal judge. This was a controversial move: Senator William H. King of Utah, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee called Hastie's appointment a "blunder."
Hastie served as a judge for two years. In 1939, he resigned from the court to become the Dean of the Howard University School of Law, where he had previously taught. During his tenure as a legal professor at Howard University, Hastie became a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. One of his students there was future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
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