DAN R. WARREN, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, was born October 10, 1925. Dan quit high school in 1943, at the age of 17 and joined the U. S. Army Air Corp. He is a combat veteran of World War II, serving as a nose gunner on a B-24 in the 15th. Air Force in Italy. After the war, Dan returned to Greensboro Senior High School graduating in 1946. Taking advantage of the G. I. Bill, he enrolled at Guilford College in Greensboro. He left at the end of his junior year in 1949 to attend Law School at Stetson University in Deland, Florida where he graduated in 1952.

He began the practice of law in Daytona Beach, Florida in January 1952 and shortly thereafter was elected to the Daytona Beach City Commission. He served as Mayor Pro-Tem of the city; once as it’s official host on the occasion of the visit of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to the home of Dr. Mary McCloud Bethune where Mrs.Roosevelt spent the night with her old friend. He also served as Daytona Beach City Judge pro tem. He has also served as city attorney for the city of Edgewater, Florida. As city commissioner, he first advanced the idea for the building of the Daytona Beach Speedway and was appointed by the city commissioners’ as a committee of one to investigate the idea. Working closely with Bill France, the President of NASCAR, the facility was finally completed in 1959 with the running of the first Daytona 500. Dan was nominated by Bill France for the Daytona Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce ‘Outstanding Young Man of the Year Award” which was awarded to him in 1954. He was instrumental in forming the Daytona Beach Racing and Recreational Facilities District in 1953 (later in 1955, the District was renamed the Authority). He was the Districts first chairman and served on the renamed Authority for 41 years where he also served a term as its Chairman.

Governor LeRoy Collins appointed Dan Justice of the Peace of the Seventh Judicial District of Volusia County, Florida in 1958. He was appointed to serve out the unexpired term of J. C. Beard, the notorious racist Justice of the Peace who had been removed by Governor Collins from office for Malfeasance.

Governor Farris Bryant appointed Dan an Assistant State Attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit in 1961 and, in 1962, after the resignation of W. W. (Billy) Judge, the Governor appointed him State Attorney. Dan was elected to this position in 1962 and reelected in 1964. In 1966 he was elected President of the Florida Prosecuting Attorney’s Association.

During the racial crisis in St. Augustine in 1964, Governor Bryant appointed Dan his personal representative in St. Augustine under the authority granted to the Governor by the Florida Legislature. Paul Wills, an Associated Press reporter, wrote, “Warren undertook what became a key role in stopping the race violence in America’s oldest city.”

Using the authority entrusted to him by the Governor, Dan issued an order that the public beaches in St. Augustine were open to all races and authorized the Florida Highway Patrol to arrest anyone who attempted to interfere with another’s right to use the public beaches. Armed with this order, the Florida Highway Patrol arrested numerous Klansmen for interfering with Black citizens use of the Public Beach’s in St. Augustine. He also cracked down on the violence of the KKK, infiltrated their meetings with a Florida Wildlife Officer and had those who lighted a cross on private property arrested. He prosecuted other members of the Klan on the infamous Valero Beach Bridge incident as well as other acts of violence. He met privately with Dr. Martin Luther King in an attempt to reach a peaceful settlement, and empanelled a Grand Jury to have a bi-racial committee appointed to ease the violence. His innovative use of a Florida Grand Jury for this purpose was the first in the State of Florida. Intensely unpopular with the Mayor and other public officials, who resisted his effort to integrate, Warren nevertheless ignored the threats of the Klan and the political repercussions of his position and proceeded to afford protection for the civil rights demonstrations. The first time this had been down by a public official in the South. Impressed with his work, Dr. Harold DeWolf, Dr. Kings Mentor at Boston University, in February of 1965 invited Dan to address the combined facilities and students of the College of Law and the School of Theology on the subject of the Moral and Ethical Responsibility of Prosecutors in Times of Racial Crisis.

Mr. Warren resigned as State Attorney in 1968 and has spent the remainder of his legal career defending the constitutional rights of others, especially minorities. In his long and distinguished career, he has written extensively on constitutional rights, especially freedom of speech and freedom of the press, as well as fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

Mr. Warren has received a number of awards in the field of human rights, including the Bethune-Cookman College Jurisprudence and Human Relations Award for Outstanding Service in 1966. He is also the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. Civil Rights Award in 1998. He is the first white asked to address the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dinner in Daytona Beach, Florida.

He has appeared on CBS 60 Minutes and ABC 20/20 on the issue of the legality of the Florida Highway Profile stops. He uncovered and exposed the Florida Highway Patrol Project Interdiction program that profiled minorities, especially Blacks, for stops. When former Highway Patrolman, Robert Vogle was elected Sheriff of Volusia County and created his own profile based upon stops that he had made, Warren challenged the constitutionally of these stops. They were declared unconstitutional by Circuit Judge MacFarren Smith. The Fifth District Court of Appeals upheld this decision and the State’s petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of Florida. At age 82, he still practices law in Daytona Beach, Florida with two of his sons. Of his six living children, 4 are lawyers, one a medical doctor, and one is a Certified Public Accountant. His wife Stasia, is a County Judge in Volusia County, Florida.