He began his legal career in 1947, serving as
law clerk to Judge
Herbert F. Goodrich of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Felix Frankfurter in 1948. He was the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court law clerk. Fellow clerks, including
Elliot Richardson, would have difficulty finding a restaurant where they could eat together.
Thurgood Marshall, then the chief counsel of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, recruited Coleman to be one of the lead strategists and coauthor of the legal brief in
Brown v. Board of Education (1954), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held
racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. William Coleman joined Philadelphia based firm, Dilworth Paxson, in 1951. Eventually becoming the first African-American lawyer admitted as a partner in a Philadelphia law firm. Mr. Coleman worked on libel suits within Dilworth Paxson's Litigation Department for
The Inquirer and beyond. At this time, he also becomes a member of the Board of Directors of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. before leaving the firm in 1971. He served as a member of the NAACP's national legal committee, director and member of its executive committee, and president of board of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Coleman was also a member of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Committee on Government Employment Policy (1959–1961) and a consultant to the
U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1963–1975). Coleman served as an assistant counsel to the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (1964), also known as the
Warren Commission, on which then-Congressman
Gerald Ford was a commissioner. Coleman was co-counsel to the petitioners in
McLaughlin v. Florida (1964), in which the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a law prohibiting an interracial couple from living together.
Cabinet post President Gerald Ford appointed Coleman to serve in his
Cabinet as the fourth
Secretary of Transportation on March 7, 1975. and flights began on After the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey banned the jet, the U.S. Supreme Court restored Coleman's authorization. Coleman was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. On September 29, 1995, Coleman was presented with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Bill Clinton. After the July 17, 1996, crash of
TWA Flight 800, he served on the President's Commission on Airline and Airport Security. Coleman received an honorary
LL.D. from
Bates College in 1975. Coleman was also awarded honorary degrees from, among others,
Williams College in May 1975,
Gettysburg College on May 22, 2011, and
Boston University in May 2012. Coleman was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 2001. In September 2004, President
George W. Bush appointed Coleman to the
United States Court of Military Commission Review. In June 2006, Coleman received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement. In December 2006, Coleman served as an honorary pallbearer during the
state funeral of Gerald Ford in
Washington, D.C. In June 2024, the William T. Coleman, Jr. Foundation, Inc. honored the legacy of William T. Coleman, Jr., Esq. with the unveiling of a sculpture that is now permanently displayed at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. ==Personal life==