Yesterday, a trailblazing retired judge for the Bluff City passed away at the age of 93 at Baptist Memorial Hospital.
Arthur T. Bennett, a graduate from Howard University Law School, began his career as the first African American Assistant District Attorney in Tennessee, notably becoming the first African American prosecutor in the D.A.’s Office in 1965 (being the first black prosecutor in the entire state since the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War).
Bennett would eventually be appointed to the Shelby County Criminal Courts as a judge in 1967, where he would serve on the bench with a signature quiet yet stern demeanor until retiring in 2014.
At this time, funeral service arrangements for the late Judge Bennett have yet to be announced.
