John W. Davis had a long career in politics, diplomacy, and the law. Following his service as a Representative from West Virginia and U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Davis, a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully for the White House in 1924 losing to President Calvin Coolidge. Over the course of his legal career before and after his presidential campaign, Davis argued 140 cases before the United States Supreme Court. He was best known for his winning argument in the 1952 Youngstown Steel Seizure Case and his final argument defending “separate but equal” schools on the losing side in Briggs v. Elliott, a companion case in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
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