Clyde W. Waite

Judge Clyde W. Waite was the first, and at this point, the only African American Judge on the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas. He was also the first person of color elected to any countywide position in Bucks County.

Waite earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University and his law degree from Yale Law School. Prior to beginning his judicial career, Waite was a real estate broker and a lawyer. He was elected to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas in 2003, and was retained for another 10-year term in 2013. Waite retired from the bench in 2014.

Waite has been outspoken about racial stereotypes and prejudice and has shared his experiences with racism, as a Black man living in a predominantly white, affluent community. In 2018, Waite was almost arrested in his own home, after a neighbor called the police, believing that he was a burglar. Fortunately, the police officers who responded to the call recognized Waite and understood that the neighbor had misjudged the situation. 

That was far from Waite's first experience with racial prejudice. When Waite's family first moved to Bucks County, they could not find anyone to sell them a house. Shortly after the move, Waite worked as a public defender and was once misidentified as a defendant during a trial. The day after he was reelected to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas in 2013, a longtime court reporter mistook Waite as the courthouse janitor. In a frightening moment in Alabama, Waite and his friends were tailed and eventually run off the road by Alabama State Police. After the truck Waite and his friends were in flipped down an embankment, the police arrested the driver, forcing Waite and three of his friends to find their own way back to town. 

After the 2018 incident at his home, Waite recalled these experiences and shared that he has worked to overcome the anger he has felt throughout his life, so that it does not consume him. As a judge, he encouraged young Black defendants to use that same anger constructively and channel it toward their success. He has also emphasized the importance of voting and how voting can have a significant impact on people's lives. 

Waite is a strong advocate for adult education. He co-founded the Anna Middleton Waite Adult Learning Center (named after his mother) with other members of his family, in his hometown of McKeesport. Classes began in January 2015, focusing on computer literacy for senior citizens and other adults. New virtual classes began on August 6, 2020.

Still the only African American judge to have served in Bucks County, Waite hopes that there will one day be more African Americans on the bench. He has stressed the importance of people seeing minorities in positions of authority, and how that can dismantle stereotypes.