Sarah T. Hughes

Born Sarah Augusta Tilghman in Baltimore, Maryland, she was the daughter of James Cooke and Elizabeth (Haughton) Tilghman. She went to high school at Western Female High School (now Western High School) in Baltimore, where she was elected president of the freshman class. Standing only five feet one-half inch at maturity, she was described by a classmate as "small but terrible".[3] Her determined personality extended to the athletic field where she participated in intramural track and field, gymnastics, and basketball. Another instance of Hughes's strong personal discipline was seen in her habit of going to bed by 8 pm and getting up at 4 am, a habit she continued through much of her life. After graduating from Western High School, she attended Goucher College, an all women's college in central Baltimore very close to her home. She participated in athletics at Goucher College, and 'learned to lose without bitterness, to get up and try again, to never feel resentment,' a trait that would serve her well through many years of political victories and defeats. She graduated with an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1917.

After graduating from college, Hughes taught science at Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for several years. She then returned to school to the study of law. In 1919 she moved to Washington, D.C., and attended The George Washington University Law School. She attended classes at night and during the day worked as a police officer. As a police officer, Hughes did not carry a gun or wear a police uniform because she worked to prevent crimes among women and girls, patrolling areas where female runaways and prostitutes were normally found. Her job was an expression of the progressive idea of rehabilitation instead of punishment. Hughes later credited this job with instilling in her a sense of commitment and responsibility to women and children. At that time she lived in a tent home near the Potomac River and commuted to the campus by canoe each evening.[3] She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1922.

In 1922, she moved to Dallas, Texas, with her husband, George Ernest Hughes, whom she had met in law school. Her husband quickly found employment after law school, but Sarah faced significant obstacles as a woman during a time in which law firms generally did not regard women as qualified.[4] Eventually, the small firm of Priest, Herndon, and Ledbetter gave her a rent-free space and even referred some cases to her in exchange for her services as a receptionist. As her practice grew and became more successful, she became increasingly active in local women's organizations. She joined the Zonta Club, the Business and Professional Women's Club, the Dallas Women's Political League, the League of Women Voters, YWCA, Dallas College Club, and the American Association of University Women. Hughes served as Chair of the AAUW Committee on the Economic and Legal Status of Women, advocating equal pay jury service for women, and improved status and recognition for women in the Armed Services. She practiced law for eight years in Dallas before becoming involved in politics, first being elected in 1930 to three terms in the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat.[5] In 1935, Hughes accepted an appointment as a state judge from Governor James Burr V Allred for the Fourteenth District Court in Dallas, becoming the state's first female district judge. In 1936 she was elected to the same post. She was re-elected six more times and remained in that post until 1961.

Hughes received a recess appointment from President John F. Kennedy on October 5, 1961, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, to a new seat authorized by 75 Stat. 80. She was nominated to the same position by President Kennedy on January 15, 1962. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 16, 1962, and received her commission on March 17, 1962. She was the only female judge appointed by President Kennedy, the first female federal judge in Texas and the third female to serve in the federal judiciary. She assumed senior status on August 4, 1975. Her service terminated on April 23, 1985, due to her death.[6]

Hughes was concerned over the ineligibility of women in Texas to serve on juries even though they had the right to vote. She and Helen Edmunds Moore coauthored a proposed amendment that would allow women on juries in Texas, but the bill failed and went nowhere. Despite defeat, Hughes became closely identified with this cause and few people were recognized as working harder for this right. Due in to part to Hughes's work, Texas women secured the right to serve on juries in 1954.[9][10]

Judge Hughes swears in Lyndon B. Johnson as President of the United States as Mrs. Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson look on. Photo by Cecil W. Stoughton.

Two years into her tenure as a federal district judge, on November 22, 1963, Hughes was called upon to administer the oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson after the assassination of President Kennedy, a task usually performed by the Chief Justice of the United States. According to an interview with Barefoot Sanders, who was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas at the time:[11]

LBJ called Irving Goldberg from the plane and asked, 'Who can swear me in?' Goldberg called me, and I said, 'Well, we know a federal judge can.' Then I got a call from the President's plane, with the command 'Find Sarah Hughes.' Coincidentally, Judge Hughes, Jan [Sanders' wife] and I [Sanders] were supposed to go to Austin that night for a dinner for President Kennedy. I reached her at home and said, 'They need you to swear in the Vice President at Love Field. Please get out there.'

She said, 'Is there an oath?'

I said, 'Yes, but we haven't found it yet.'

She said, 'Don't worry about it; I'll make one up.'

She was very resourceful, you know. By the time she got to the airplane, someone had already called it into the plane. We quickly realized that it is in the Constitution [Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 8].

Hughes believed that President Johnson chose her to administer the oath of office due to their friendship, and because Johnson was not pleased with other federal judges in Dallas. Because of this, Hughes was the most suitable choice. Sanders and Hughes no doubt believed those rationales, but Johnson had other reasons to choose her, according to Caro: "He knew who he wanted - and she was in Dallas." Citing another historian, Max Holland,[12] Caro noted that the circumstances surrounding Hughes's appointment meant that she "'personified Johnson's utter powerlessness'" when he was vice president. The new president ordered his staff, "'Get Sarah Hughes ... Find her.'" Hughes was found and driven to Love Field, while Air Force One—and thus the inauguration of the new president—was held up just for her. Caro asserts that Johnson, in his insecurities, chose Hughes to show to the world that he was now powerful.[13] Two other historians (Holland and Gillen) agree with Caro's assessment that Johnson was still upset that he'd not been consulted on Hughes's appointment in the first place, so it was a way to placate his ego.[8][12] On the other hand, Johnson needed to make sure that "the swearing-in take place at the earliest possible moment ... to demonstrate, quickly, continuity and stability to the nation and the world. ... " Johnson used the "few minutes to spare" while waiting for Hughes to arrive to plead to Kennedy's staffers to stay awhile for the transition. Finally, she arrived, along with the media and Jackie Kennedy; only then the swearing-in could take place. Hughes noted that Jackie's "eyes 'were cast down'" when Johnson nodded to the judge to start the oath of office.[14]

Throughout her lifetime, Sarah Hughes was known for her speedy and impartial administration. In 1950, she assisted in establishing Dallas's first juvenile detention center.

Hughes was involved in multiple court decisions, including Roe v. Wade, Shultz v. Brookhaven General Hospital, and Taylor v. Sterrett. Hughes was a member of the three-judge panel that first heard the case of Roe v. Wade; the panel's decision was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. In Taylor v. Sterrett, she argued to upgrade prisoner treatment in the Dallas County jail. Hughes noted that "the Dallas County Jail was very much in need of change. It was in deplorable condition, and [she] think[s], that under [her] jurisdiction, it became one of the best jails in the whole United States."[15]

Hughes retired from the active federal bench in 1975, though she continued to work as a judge with senior status until 1982. A close friend of Lyndon Johnson and his family, Hughes participated in his inauguration in 1965, took part in the book signing of Lady Bird Johnson's White House memoirs, and participated in the dedication of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. The dress Hughes wore during the swearing in on Air Force One was donated to a wax museum in Grand Prairie, Texas, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1988.[16] In 1982, Hughes suffered a debilitating stroke which confined her to a nursing home in Dallas. She died three years later on April 23, 1985.[17]

The Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Hughes' alma mater, Goucher College, founded in the 1950s with a grant from the Maurice and Laura Falk Foundation, is named in her honor.[18] The special collections reading room of the University of North Texas Libraries is also named in her honor.[19]

• List of first women lawyers and judges in Texas

• Sarah Tilghman Hughes at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• More photos of the taking of the oath
• The Sarah T. Hughes Center for Field Politics at Goucher College
• Sarah T. Hughes Archive at University of North Texas
• Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes by Darwin Payne (Texas A&M University Press)
• Sarah T. Hughes at Find a Grave
• Oral History Interview with Sarah T. Hughes, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
• Women in Texas History
• Description of Judge Hughes