William Pierce Rogers served as U.S. attorney general from 1957 to 1961 under President Dwight Eisenhower. Rogers served during a time when the civil rights movement was pushing federal authorities to do more to enforce the Supreme Court's ban on segregated public schools. Rogers took the first steps in over 90 years to use the office of attorney general to attack racial discrimination. Although he later served as secretary of state under Richard Nixon, Rogers was pushed aside as the president's foreign policy adviser by White House aide Henry Kissinger.

Rogers was born on June 23, 1913 in Norfolk, New York. After earning a degree form Colgate University, Rogers received a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1937. His first years in law practice were spent as a county prosecutor, but World War II interrupted his legal career. After serving as a naval officer, Rogers briefly resumed his criminal practice before switching...