Throughout most of his life, Lew Coggins has always belonged to a minority. His is a white male membership. He spent much of his adult life clerking for the federal Court of Appeals, which regularly serves as a stepping stone for blue-collar, middle-income, urban residents. He twice worked as a clerk for U.S. District Judge Daniel T. Crabtree — none of the four biggest courts in the nation have more than one (the 4th was reserved for Native Americans, at Coggins’ expense). Crabtree championed racial and ethnic diversity, calling the U.S. District Court, which reaches across the country, “the greatest fountain of learning we have.”

Coggins’ African-American credentials are limited. He graduated from high school in Elmira, N.Y., but to this day the federal court recorder there refuses to record his citizenship. He never passed the bar and was never a teacher.

It’s true that he’s paid less than median wages for clerks and that he’s never led the race to reach the prestigious bar or clerked for a district court judge. But there are no rules for what white men can do. Much as he did as a quiet surrogate in his St. Louis office, he still rose to a place of greatness.

Almost nothing he did made Coggins in the public eye. He regularly sat in on jury trials, helping to serve as a sort of unofficial advocate for the attorneys, often receiving accolades from the lawyers’ bars for doing so. In a 1973 postmortem on the events that led to Coggins’ firing from his clerking job, the presiding judge of that court concurred that Coggins’ conduct wasn’t as egregious as his newspaper editorials might lead one to believe.

He managed to keep a low profile, even though public perceptions didn’t reflect the truth. A “strict segregation” law prevented Coggins from serving as a military chaplain in the military, despite his religious practice. In the National Religion News Awards, he was named chaplain of the year in 1985 for his work as a serviceman and as a Federal Court recorder.

He was a shy man, but not a shy writer. His conservative newspaper columns, his libertarian appeals to an angry country, and his references to racists to further his cause showed the way of the dynamic society. He was fearless in bringing forth problems in the courts and shamed those who failed to notice or to correct them, which may explain the way his trial was thoughtlessly leaked. What he said was never more important than how loud he made it.

Many felt burned and outraged by the trial, which made national headlines. The burning came mostly from about eight Black people, who argued for reduced sentencing for their men and women and refused to turn the other cheek. Under international and local pressure, the trial was moved from St. Louis to Jefferson City, Missouri, where the strategy was and still is to be the cheerleader for political victims. They said the trial should have been held in St. Louis.

Surveys show that African-Americans are hard on Coggins, who was sent to prison in 1976. The controversy never truly died. In the 1980s, Coggins was removed from being a canon in the Wesleyan order because the Church disapproved of his religious leadership.

In 1996, he became the first black federal judge to speak at a conference held by the Council of the European Parliamentary Assembly.

To this day, he runs the Philadelphia Clearing House and himself manages the finances. His investments are limited, but he does own a house and land, reportedly his and his wife’s.

Coggins could fight or fight alone. Those acts, characterized by violence, are characteristic of white men. (Some of this week’s New York Times stories are telling. Tales abound of white male careerists shutting down black professionals.) But his fearless politics have earned him respect and (at least in the American system) deference.

Read the full story at Forbes.com.

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Correction: Lew Coggins is the lone white male on our list. Several commenters pointed out this oversight.