Born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1893, Francis E. Rivers was raised in Washington, DC. His father, Rev. David Foote Rivers, was a Baptist minister who served in the Tennessee state legislature; he did not complete his second term in office due to the threat of violence from the Ku Klux Klan.
Rivers studied law at Howard University before coming to Yale, where he received his BA and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, he entered Harvard Law School but left for financial reasons. During World War I, he rose to the rank of lieutenant in the 367th Infantry Regiment and was stationed in France. After some time seeking work, he entered Columbia Law School and graduated in 1922.
Rivers practiced law and was active in Republican politics in New York City. In 1930, he was elected to the State Assembly. In 1938, he joined the staff of then-District Attorney Thomas Dewey. In 1943, he became the first Black judge on the City Court and served until his retirement in 1963. At the time it was the highest judicial position held by a Black person in the country.
In 1943, his sponsor for membership to the American Bar Association resigned in protest when it appeared Rivers’ application was being held up due to his race. He was later admitted as the second Black person to the ABA. He was the first Black member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and was later vice president and chairman of its Special Committee on Civil Rights.
In spring 1944, Rivers returned to Yale to give a talk to the Dixwell Group, a local interracial organization sponsored by Dwight Hall, on the topic of “PhD Porters - The Future of the Negro in the Professions.”
Rivers was a board member of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and served as its president from 1965 to 1970. His obituary stated that he was treasurer of his Yale alumni group. Rivers died in 1975.
Image citation: Yale College Class of 1915 class book, Yale University Library