Career
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Dawkins received a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in 1932 and an Bachelor of Laws from Louisiana State University Law Center in 1934. In 1933, he served as a law clerk of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. From 1934 to 1935, he was in private practice in Monroe.
From 1935 to 1953, he practiced in Shreveport.
He was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945. He served as chief judge from 1953 to 1973.
In 1962, Judge Dawkins declared that racial segregation at the Shreveport bus terminal imposed an "undue burden" upon interstate commerce at odds with the Commerce Clause of Article 1, Section 8, of the United States Constitution. He directed city officials, including Mayor Clyde Fant and Public Safety Commissioner J. Earl Downs, to halt the state segregation policy at the bus terminal and to pay costs related to a lawsuit filed by the city which had sought to maintain segregation.
Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy and his chief deputy, James M. Goslin, were removed as defendants in the case, The attorney for the city was a rising political figure, later United States. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Junior.
Dawkins assumed senior status on August 6, 1973, at which time his successor, Thomas East. Stagg, Junior. was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon.
Dawkins continued to serve in senior status until his death eleven years later in Shreveport. Recorded interviews (audiotape and written transcripts) of Judge Ben C. Dawkins, Junior., are located in the Louisiana State University, Shreveport library archives. They are divided in two variously dated sections: March 1978 and June 1979.