Effort underway to name Merced Courthouse after homegrown legal scholar Ogletree Jr.

Efforts are underway to name the Merced County Courthouse after a prominent legal scholar and civil rights attorney who was a mentor to President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, back when the couple were students at Harvard University.

Assemblymember Adam Gray, D-Merced, announced Wednesday his office is working with the Merced County NAACP and California/Hawaii State Conference NAACP to name the courthouse after Charles James Ogletree, Jr.

A news release from Gray’s office said legislation has been introduced in Sacramento to move the effort forward.

“I am proud to partner with the NAACP to honor Dr. Ogletree and his incredible contributions to our national conversation around equality, race and civil rights,” Gray said in the release.

“As we continue to grapple with racial bias in the criminal justice system, the renaming of our courthouse after Dr. Ogletree will be a fitting reminder both of his legacy in the legal profession and the lessons he spent his life promoting and teaching.”

Born and raised in Merced

Born in Merced in 1952, Ogletree was the son of Charles Sr. and Willie Mae Ogletree. His family, including his grandparents, were migrant workers, often picking figs for a living, according to the Sun-Star archives.

He left his hometown to pursue an education and eventually went on to earn a master’s degree from Stanford University and his juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

During his career he focused on advancing civil rights, racial justice and social tolerance and was an influential writer and scholar in the legal profession.

As a professor at Harvard Law, Ogletree inspired many generations of students, including the Obamas

In a column he wrote for the Sun-Star in 2009, Ogletree described the president and first lady as “exceptionally gifted students” during their time at Harvard.

“I met Michelle in 1985 and Barack in 1988, and this journey has had many sweet victories and a few bitter defeats, but nothing will match the joy of being a kid born and raised in Merced finding himself 56 years later serving as a senior adviser and mentor to the President of the United States of America,” Ogletree wrote.

Among his most prominent achievements, Ogletree represented survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a racially-motivated attack against Tulsa’s thriving Black community of Greenwood. He also acted as legal counsel to Professor Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.

If renamed after Ogletree, the Merced County Superior Courthouse would join many of California’s other superior courthouses in being named after a prominent individual in the legal profession, according to Gray’s office.

“We cannot think of a more fitting way to honor Charles’s extraordinary career and contributions to the legal profession and civil rights than with this amazing accolade,” said Pamela Ogletree, Ogletree’s wife.

“The impact Charles’s humble beginnings in Merced had on his life and career cannot be overstated. His deep gratitude to the community that nurtured him, more than anything else, compelled him to pursue a life of service.”

Ogletree announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease.

“Should I allow myself to become despondent amid this challenge? No–today, just as I have fought and advocated for civil rights and justice for America’s communities of color over the course of decades, I will join the efforts of others raising awareness about the illness and fighting for a cure,” he told the publication Harvard Law Today.

While the State Courthouse Naming Policy stipulates that courthouses can only be named after the place in which it is located or a deceased person, Assemblyman Gray’s new bill would create a new exemption.

“Dr. Ogletree spent his entire career challenging rules and policies that were unjust,” said Assemblyman Gray. “It is only fitting that we have to bend the rules here to bestow on him this honor.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 12:44 PM.