Richard Taylor Rives (January 15, 1895 – October 27, 1982) was anAmerican lawyer andjudge. A native ofAlabama, he was the soleDemocrat among the "Fifth Circuit Four," fourUnited States circuit judges of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the 1950s and 1960s that issued a series of decisions crucial in advancing thecivil and political rights ofAfrican-Americans.^[1] At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not onlyLouisiana,Mississippi, andTexas (its currentjurisdiction), but alsoAlabama,Georgia, andFlorida (which were subsequently split off into theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit), and thePanama Canal Zone.

He is a descendant of Robert Ryves (Reve) of Dorset.^[2]

Born inMontgomery,Montgomery County,Alabama, on January 15, 1895, to William Henry Rives (1854-1922) and his wife, the former Alice Bloodworth Taylor (1856-1943), Rives had five siblings. A maternal great-great-grandfather had served as the first Baptist minister in Montgomery. Three of his great-great-great-great grandfathers had served in theAmerican Revolutionary War: Captain William Sanford (1734-1806) had carried dispatches to France before settling in Georgia, Major John Mason (1716-1785) had acted as Justice of Sussex County, Virginia during that time, and Private James McLemore (1718-1800) had also served the Revolutionary cause in Granville County, North Carolina.^[3] Both sides of his family had operated large plantations using enslaved labor before theAmerican Civil War.^[4]

Rives attended theSidney Lanier High School in Montgomery and graduated as valedictorian of his class. He then won a tuition scholarship and began studies atTulane University inNew Orleans,Louisiana. However, Rives also had to borrow money for living expenses from his sister, so he withdrew from the university after a year and began working for Wiley Hill, an attorney practicing in Montgomery whose family plantation had shared a border with the Rives' plantation before the American Civil War. Rives would later receive honorary degrees from theUniversity of Notre Dame in 1966 andCumberland Law School atSamford University in 1975.^[5]

Afterreading law, Rives passed the Alabama bar examination in 1914 at 19 years old. He was inprivate practice inMontgomery, Alabama, from 1914 to 1916.^[6] DuringWorld War I, Rives joined the Alabama National Guard, then served in theUnited States Army (1916 to 1919; commissioned a first lieutenant in 1917).^[6] While stationed inMacon,Georgia, Rives met Jessie H. Daugherty. They married soon after he left the Army, and would have four children, although two died as infants.^[4] Rives's relationship with his son and namesake Richard Rives Jr. (1922-1949) would later greatly affect his attitudes toward racial discrimination. His son had attended theUniversity of Exeter in England andHarvard University in Massachusetts, then become severely ill while serving in the Pacific theater duringWorld War II. Based on his own reading and discussions with African American soldiers hospitalized with him, the younger Rives determined to confront issues involved in what many Southerners called "the race question." He also went to the University of Michigan Law school, advised his father to readGunnar Myrdal's treatise and planned to join the family law firm, but died in an auto accident in 1949. After his wife's death in 1973, Rives in 1976 married Martha Blake Thigpen Frazer, but they had no children.^[4]

In 1919 Rives returned to private practice in Montgomery after his World War I service, and became involved in politics and theDemocratic Party during theNew Deal. He directed the 1942 gubernatorial campaign ofBibb Graves, who died before the election.^[4] Rives served as president of both the Montgomery County and state bar associations. In 1951, he successfully appeared before theUnited States Supreme Court on behalf of theAlabama Public Service Commission, and the court reversed a lower federal court's ruling that had allowed theSouthern Railway Company to discontinue much local service in the state, deciding such was a state rather than federal matter.^[4] He was a close friend ofUnited States Senator thenSupreme CourtJusticeHugo Black, as well as of Alabama SenatorsJohn Sparkman andLister Hill.^[4]

Rives was nominated by PresidentHarry S. Truman on April 12, 1951, to a seat on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated by JudgeLeon Clarence McCord. He was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on May 1, 1951, and received his commission on May 3, 1951. He served as Chief Judge and as a member of theJudicial Conference of the United States from 1959 to 1960. He assumedsenior status on February 15, 1966. Rives was reassigned byoperation of law to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on October 1, 1981, pursuant to 94 Stat. 1994. His service terminated on October 27, 1982, due to his death.^[6]

The Fifth Circuit supervised federal district judges in six southern states. By the time of the United States Supreme Court rulings concerning desegregation inBrown v. Board of Education, the other "Fifth Circuit Four" judges had all been appointed byRepublican PresidentDwight Eisenhower:Elbert P. Tuttle ofAtlanta, Georgia,John Minor Wisdom ofNew Orleans,Louisiana, andJohn Robert Brown ofHouston,Texas. All shared a quiet passion against injustice.^[5] Rives and his colleagues became actively involved in racial desegregation after state officials became involved inMassive Resistance. He also became involved in cases concerning bus desegregation, legislative redistricting and jury selection.^[4]

Rives died at home in Montgomery, age 87 on October 27, 1982, after a long illness.^[5]

Rives' granddaughter, United States District JudgeCallie V. Granade, of the Southern District of Alabama. Granade struck down Alabama's prohibition on same-sex marriage, a decision eventually affirmed by theUnited States Supreme Court.^[7][8][9]

Rives was inducted into the Alabama Lawyers' Hall of Fame in 2022.^[10]

Jack Bass,Unlikely Heroes Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1981.

• Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• United States court of appeals judges appointed by Harry S. Truman
• United States Army personnel of World War I
• 1895 births
• 1982 deaths
• United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
• University of Michigan people

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