President Bush signed a bill Thursday designating 1 Federal Plaza in Manhattan the James L. Watson United States Court of International Trade Building. It is a fine designation, honoring a pillar of our community who passed away two years ago. The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York. It attaches the late judge’s name to the U.S. Court of International Trade, where he served for 36 years, until his death.

He was appointed to the court, which was called the United States Customs Court at the time, in 1966 by President Johnson. As Mr. Rangel recounted during floor debate of the measure, Judge Watson was the nation’s most senior black federal judge, and “was the first black Customs Court judge in modern times assigned to cases in the deep South.”

The District of Columbia’s delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, recalled of Judge Watson on the House floor: “In World War II, he served as an infantryman with the legendary all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldiers Division and was seriously wounded in combat in Italy. He received the Purple Heart, the Battle Star, the Combat Infantry Badge and a U.S. Army commendation. After the war and his recuperation, he attended New York University and Brooklyn Law School. Upon graduation, he established a private practice with retired Judge Bruce Wright; Lisle Carter, former assistant secretary at the Department of Health and

Human Services, and Jacob Smith. Judge Watson was elected in 1954 to the State Senate and to the [New York City] Civil Court in 1963. Judge Watson hired as one of his first law clerks a young attorney named Charles Rangel.”

Early in the 20th century, Watson’s parents immigrated to America from Jamaica. Watson’s father, a lawyer, was the first naturalized person of West Indian descent appointed Assistant Corporation Council for New York City, to become a member of the American Bar Association, and in 1930, to be elected to the New York Municipal Court. Watson’s cousins include Bruce Llewellyn, chairman of Coca-Cola, Secretary of State Powell, and Dorothy Llewellyn Cropper, a New York Supreme Court justice. “He was a lifelong resident of Harlem, a sought-after public speaker, and an insightful adviser to local public officials,” Ms. Norton said. “Watson was a fine man, a distinguished jurist, and a pillar of the Harlem community where he was born,” Mr. Rangel said.”Judge Watson was a trailblazer in government and the law, with a reputation for fairness, good judgment, and the common touch with people.”