HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern EraPostwar & Contemporary

John J. Parker

Monroe, Union County, North Carolina

Marker Inscription

John J. Parker 1885 1958. Chief judge, U.S. Fourth Circuit, 1931-58; alternate member, Nuremberg tribunal, 1945-46. He was born one block SE.

Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

The Story

John J. Parker (1885–1958) was a distinguished jurist who served as chief judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1931 until his death. In 1945–46 he served as an alternate American member of the Nuremberg tribunal, which brought Nazi leaders to justice after World War II. Born in Monroe, he was once nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Why it matters

Parker's career reached from a small Carolina town to the international bench at Nuremberg, where the postwar world sought to establish that even the gravest crimes of war would answer to law.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · John J. Parker

Related events

  • · Nuremberg trials

Themes & tags

World War IIMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Mecklenburg County WWII Memorial

Charlotte, NC

This memorial honors the residents of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who died in World War II—the deadliest conflict in human history, which drew millions of Americans overseas between 1941 and 1945. Charlotte and its surrounding county sent thousands of sons and daughters into the fight, and like communities across the nation, it counted its losses when the war ended. Monuments like this one rose in county seats and town squares in the postwar years, giving grieving families and neighbors a shared place to remember those who never came home.

Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base

Maxton, NC

From 1942 to 1945, the Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base served as a major U.S. Army Air Forces glider training center. Engine-less gliders, towed aloft and released to land troops and equipment behind enemy lines, were trained here for airborne operations — including units that took part in the D-Day assault on June 6, 1944.

Lt. Samuel I. Parker

Monroe, NC

Samuel I. Parker, born just southeast of this spot in Union County, distinguished himself in the fierce fighting in France in 1918. For his valor he received the Medal of Honor, one of only two North Carolinians so honored for service in the First World War. His courage under fire made him a lasting emblem of the state's wartime sacrifice.

William Henry Belk

Monroe, NC

William Henry Belk opened his first small store in Monroe on May 29, 1888, launching what would become one of the South's great department store chains. A merchant, philanthropist, and devout Presbyterian layman, Belk built a retail empire while giving generously to churches, schools, and hospitals across the region.