U.S. District Court Judge Barefoot Sanders Retiring

[MrMustang1965]

The judge who made a landmark ruling for school desegregation in Dallas is stepping down.

Judge Barefoot Sanders, 81, is effectively leaving his job as the senior judge of the Northern Texas U.S. District Court on Aug. 31, Sanders confirmed today. He will be placed on inactive status, meaning he could return to service for a short period of time.

But Sanders said, "The circuit's not planning on calling me back."

Sanders cited his age as the primary reason he's moving on.

"I wanted to leave while I still have some options open and while I still have my marbles with me," he said.

In 1971, Sanders was assigned a case in which the Dallas Independent School District was accused of continuing to segregate by race, despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education U.S. District Court desegregation ruling.

Sanders ruled that though Dallas schools were busing students to integrate them, they hadn't gone far enough. He ordered the district to come up with a better plan to make black children feel more welcome to attend primarily white schools, and his ruling stood.

Sanders said today he is most proud of that case in his 27-year career as a judge.

He also presided over cases that resulted in improved conditions in state hospitals for people with mental illness and state schools for people who are mentally impaired.

"This is interesting work," Sanders said. "I've been lucky to have the job."

In 1979, the late U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, nominated Sanders to the judgeship, and President Jimmy Carter made the appointment.

Sanders, a Dallas native and a 1952 graduate of North Dallas High School, said he intends to take a few classes at Southern Methodist University or Richland Community College and to catch up on his reading, especially retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's autobiography, "The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice."

He said he also intends to visit his nine grandchildren.