Frank A. Hooper Jr.; Integration Judge

Frank A. Hooper Jr., the federal judge who ordered and supervised the integration of the Atlanta public school system, died Monday at his home. He was 89.

Hooper was Atlanta’s ranking federal judge in the turbulent 1960s. In 1961, after a commission reported that Georgians would rather close their schools than integrate them, he ordered the desegregation of the Atlanta public schools. That same year he also was a member of a three-judge federal panel ordering the admission of two blacks to the University of Georgia.

Later, Hooper ordered the integration of Atlanta parks, buses and Grady Hospital. In 1965, he ordered Gov. Lester Maddox to serve blacks on an equal basis at his Pickrick Restaurant.

He was appointed to the federal bench by President Harry S. Truman in 1949. In 1951, he became senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.