Provided Albert Porter Jr. was 3 when his father sent for him and his mother to leave Mississippi and join him in Chicago in the 1930s amid the Great Depression. His father had hoboed north aboard freight trains and worked janitorial jobs until earning enough money to reunite his family. They settled in Bronzeville on the Near South Side and made sure their only son got an education. Porter went on to earn a law degree; serve as a Cook County judge for 20 years; help found the Illinois Judicial Council, an organization that represents Black judges; and, at a time when few Blacks were practicing law, served as a guide post for many legal careers.