Henry W. Sawyer

Henry Washington Sawyer III was an American lawyer, civil rights activist and politician. Born in Philadelphia, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, afterwards returning to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Sawyer worked as a corporate lawyer but is best known for his advocacy of civil liberties, especially in First Amendment cases. In Abington School District v. Schempp and Lemon v. Kurtzman, he successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States that became the basis for all modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence. A member of the Democratic Party, he pursued civil rights causes in Philadelphia and in the South during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He also served a four-year term on the Philadelphia City Council, where he worked for civil service reform and to increase the amount of public art in the city.