Shobe, Benjamin Franklin
(born: October 2, 1920 - died: January 29, 2016)Born in Bowling Green, KY, Benjamin F. Shobe was a civil rights attorney who served as a counselor to Lyman T. Johnson in the lawsuit that forced the University of Kentucky to integrate. Shobe was also hired by the NAACP as an attorney in Sweeny v. The City of Louisville, which was the case that pursuaded the city to open public accommodations to African Americans.
Shobe was the first elected city police judge in Louisville, KY in 1976 and retired from the bench in 1992. He was a graduate of Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] and the University of Michigan Law School. He was also a recipient of Anderson-Mayer Funds and a member of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights' Great Black Kentuckians.
Benjamin F. Shobe was the son of Anna L. Rhodes and Walter L. Shobe; Walter was principal of Lynch West Main High School, 1939-1956. Benjamin was the husband of Norma L. Wills Shobe.
For more see The American Bench. Judges of the nation, 2nd ed., ed. by M. Reincke and N. Lichterman; Profiles of Contemporary Black Achievers of Kentucky, by J. B. Horton; Judge Benjamin Franklin Shobe (1920-1916) at the Find-a-Grave website;