page_title: Earl Warren
section_title: Early life, family, and education
hierarchical_section_title: Earl Warren / Early life, family, and education
caption_attribution_description: Earl Warren
context_page_description: Earl Warren was an American politician and jurist who served as Governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The "Warren Court" presided over a major shift in American constitutional jurisprudence, which has been recognized by many as a "Constitutional Revolution" of the liberal, with Warren writing the majority opinions in landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, Reynolds v. Sims, Miranda v. Arizona and Loving v. Virginia. Warren also led the Warren Commission, a presidential commission that investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He is the last Chief Justice to have served in an elected office before entering the Supreme Court, and is generally considered to be one of the most influential Supreme Court justices and political leaders in the history of the United States.
  Warren was born in 1891 in Los Angeles and was raised in Bakersfield, California. After graduating from the law program at the University of California, Berkeley, he began a legal career in Oakland. He was hired as a deputy district attorney for Alameda County in 1920 and was appointed district attorney in 1925.
context_section_description: Earl Warren was born in Los Angeles, California, on March 19, 1891, to Matt Warren and his wife, Crystal. Matt, whose original family name was Varren, was born in Stavanger, Norway in 1864, and he and his family migrated to the United States in 1866. Crystal, whose maiden name was Hernlund, was born in Hälsingland, Sweden; she and her family migrated to the United States when she was an infant. After marrying in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mathias and Crystal settled in Southern California in 1889, where Matthias found work with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Earl Warren was the second of two children, after his older sister, Ethel. Earl did not receive a middle name; his father later commented that "when you were born I was too poor to give you a middle name." In 1896, the family resettled in Bakersfield, California, where Warren would grow up. Though not an exceptional student, Warren graduated from Kern County High School in 1908.
  Hoping to become a trial lawyer, Warren enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley after graduating from high school. He majored in political science and became a member of the La Junta Club, which became the Sigma Phi Society of California while Warren was attending college.  Like many other students at Berkeley, Warren was influenced by the Progressive movement, and he was especially affected by Governor Hiram Johnson of California and Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. After his third year at Berkeley, Warren entered the school's Department of Jurisprudence, which was later renamed the UC Berkeley School of Law. He received an LLB degree in 1914. Like his classmates, upon graduation Warren was admitted to the California bar without examination. After graduation, he took a position with the Associated Oil Company in San Francisco.  Warren disliked working at the company and was disgusted by the corruption he saw in San Francisco, so he took a position with the Oakland law firm of Robinson and Robinson.
  After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Warren volunteered for an officer training camp, but was rejected due to hemorrhoids. Still hoping to become an officer, Warren underwent a procedure to remove the hemorrhoids, but by the time he fully recovered from the operation the officer training camp had closed. Warren enlisted in the United States Army as a private in August 1917, and was assigned to Company I of the 91st Division's 363rd Infantry Regiment at Camp Lewis, Washington. He was made acting first sergeant of the company before being sent to a three-month officer training course. After he returned to the company in May 1918 as a second lieutenant, the regiment was sent to Camp Lee, Virginia, to train draftees. Warren spent the rest of the war there and was discharged less than a month after Armistice Day, following a promotion to first lieutenant. Warren would remain part of the United States Army Reserve until 1934, rising to the rank of captain.
caption: Warren as a U.S. Army officer in 1918
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