Champman moved to Lake City, Florida, and became the law partner of Fred P. Cone, both of whom were active in Democratic Party politics.

[2] After Florida Supreme Court Justice Fred Henry Davis died in 1937, Cone, now the governor, appointed Chapman to the bench.

[2] On March 24, 1950, Chapman upheld a ruling by the Dade County Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in favor of the City of Miami, which allowed blacks to only golf on Mondays.

The one-day-a-week rule was based on the proportion of blacks to whites and Chapman cited precedents of legal segregation in education, parks, and liquor.

Chapman wrote, "courts are powerless to eradicate social instincts or to abolish distinctions based on physical difference, and the attempt to do so only accentuates existing difficulties.