Judge Franklin Cleckley

History-making judge passes away

WVU Law School professor Franklin Cleckley, the first African-American on the West Virginia Supreme Court, passed away Monday in Morgantown.

Cleckley was appointed in 1994 by Gov. Gaston Caperton. Later, he returned to the WVU faculty, which he joined originally in 1969.

He was born in Huntington and was an Indiana University Law School graduate who got his master’s degree in law at Harvard.

To read the lengthy Charleston Gazette-Mail tribute to Cleckley, click on

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-cops-and-courts/20170815/cleckley-first-african-american-on-wv-supreme-court-dies-at-77