TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Dec 21, 2021

President Joe Biden today signed a bill to remove one-time Ku Klux Klan member and late Congressman Clifford Davis’ name from Memphis’ federal building, the Daily Memphian reports. The 11-story courthouse and office building will now be named solely for the late Odell Horton Sr., the first African American judge to sit on the federal bench in Tennessee since Reconstruction. Horton had previously shared the name of the building with Davis. The bipartisan bill to remove Davis’ name was sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, and gained momentum after a report from the Institute for Public Service Reporting last year detailed Davis’ ties to the KKK. Horton served as a federal bankruptcy judge before being appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1980 by then-President Jimmy Carter.