Robert D. Glass

Robert Davis Glass (November 28, 1922 – November 27, 2001) was the first African American justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, serving from 1987 to 1992. He was a plaintiff in McKissick v. Carmichael, which desegregated the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1951. Early life Glass was born into poverty in the racially segregated Deep South, in Wetumpka, Alabama. His parents, Isaiah and M. E. (Jackson) Glass, were a farmhand and a domestic worker. His family was too poor to afford schoolbooks, so he only began attending school at the age of ten. His mother's employer, a judge, mentored Glass, inviting him to observe court proceedings and discussing cases with him while Glass worked as his caddie. Shortly after high school, Glass enlisted in the US Army during World War II, serving from 1943 to 1946 and earning the Good Conduct Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant. Education A skilled athlete who stood 6 feet 7 inches tall, Glass attended North Carolina Central University (then an exclusively African American college) on a basketball scholarship. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in 1949. Rejected from the University of North Carolina School of Law due to his race, Glass attended the NCCU School of Law instead. He graduated at the top of his class in 1951, when he became the first African American admitted to the North Carolina bar. His parents mortgaged their home to give Glass the $500 he needed to open a law office.