Judge John Minor Wisdom graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1925, studied at the Harvard Graduate School and received his law degree from Tulane University in 1929. He practiced law for almost 30 years before being appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Eisenhower in 1957. Judge Wisdom wrote many landmark decisions that influenced the civil rights movement, including the opinions that resulted in the desegregation of the University of Mississippi. In 1993 he received the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Clinton. In 1994 Congress enacted legislation to rename the old federal building in New Orleans the John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building. In 1996 the American Bar Association awarded Judge Wisdom its highest honor, the ABA Medal "for conspicuous service to the cause of American jurisprudence."