A very few committed people can do what a gross number of laissez-faire people cannot do. Here, I speak of ideas and actions. I have found this to be true from grade school through college; then again, in Butler, Missouri, when I pastored Brooks Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church for nine years, 1995-2004, in rural Bates County.
Reading in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION by William T. Coleman, this fact, about the work a very few committed people can do, was reaffirmed. I discuss briefly these few people's ideas' enduring impact.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
Epigram of chapter 17, "The Brown Team," in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION: SHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA'S PROMISE (2010), p.120, by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss
Bill Coleman, the past Secretary of Transportation, has to my sheer delight, outlined the legal thought processes of that small, committed group of gifted attorneys and experts, into which Coleman had been invited to brainstorm in January 1950, as the first black Supreme Court law clerk, by Thurgood Marshall, then head of the NAACP 's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which was then-on "West 40th Street in Manhattan" in New York, not in Baltimore, Maryland, as now.
This assemblage was a peerless juridical war college of which he writes: "Some faces were familiar and some were not, but over the next five years, I came to know the most dedicated , energetic, and innovative group of people whom I've ever had the privilege of working with."
Among this bevy of lawyers, the first to be mentioned, beside Thurgood Marshall, was Robert Lee Carter. "Carter had graduated from Lincoln University and had been a star pupil at Howard Law School under the tutelage of [William] Hastie and [Charles Hamilton] Houston before receiving a master of law degree at Columbia....He became Marshall's deputy and ran the staff with an iron fist, making sure court deadlines were met, and freeing up Marshall to travel the country. He was more radical than most of his colleagues...Carter was the lead attorney in the Topeka desegregation school case , one of the five cases consolidated for argument in 'Brown v. Board of Education'....In the 1950s Carter and Marshall were an effective duo, complementing each other in skill and temperament , although they later went their separate ways."
Next mentioned are Spottswood W. Robinson III, "also a Howard Law School graduate and a student of Houston's and Hastie's. He and his law partner, Oliver W. Hill, Jr., were in charge of the Virginia desegregation school cases. Robinson became the dean of Howard Law School and was appointed to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...Robinson was Marshall 's cerebral soul mate, a pragmatic strategist, a graceful writer and a smooth oral advocate...The tall, balding Oliver Hill had been a classmate of Thurgood Marshall [at Howard Law School], with whom he competed for first place...He lived to the age of 100 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom."
Other Howard University Law School members of this historic, iconic, legal think-tank were: James M. Nabrit of Northwestern Law School, who "later served as Howard Law School dean, president of Howard University and an ambassador to the United Nations...He and George Edward Chalmers Hayes were the lead counsel in the Washington school desegregation case. Hayes graduated from Brown University and Howard Law School; he later taught at Howard and served as its general counsel. "
Another member of this select group was Charles T. Duncan, "A graduate of Dartmouth and captain of its ski team, Charles graduated from Harvard Law School. He later became a professor and dean of Howard Law School and corporate counsel to the District of Columbia."
I make special note of the Howard University Law School, not only because it is my alma mater, but also because as I had earlier graduated from Howard's School of Communications in 1973. Historical consciousness was a legacy of the Howard experience at every level.
But there were other members of this cadre who had no association with Howard in William Coleman's book, including Coleman, himself. William T. Coleman had graduated Harvard Law School, as had the earlier named iconic deans, Charles Hamilton Houston and William Hastie, who were instructors , legal theorists, at Howard Law School.
In addition, "Constance Baker Motley, a graduate of Columbia Law School...joined the LDF as its expert on housing issues. Quiet but tenacious she earned the respect of her male compatriots by her persistent advocacy... She later became U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York....
"One of the few white faces around the table was that of Jack Greenberg , a twenty-five year old lawyer, just out of Columbia Law School. After many years as director-counsel of the LDF, Greenberg became the dean of the College of Columbia University. Other "white faces" he notes are Louis H. Pollak "my friend and fellow associate at Paul, Weiss; Charles Black, a quirky Texan and professor at Yale Law School; and Jack Weinstein, a professor at Columbia Law School and evidence expert.
"Robert R. Ming Jr., ...worked his way through Northwestern Law for School, graduating at the top of his class as an editor of the school's law review...was a professor of law at Howard for ten years , and later taught at the University of Chicago. An excellent writer, he drafted many of the key legal briefs .
"As a younger, newer member of the team, I listened in awe to the debates , forming my own views from heated arguments among the battle-scared veterans. I supported Robinson and Carter's passionate plea for a strong frontal no holds barred attack on segregation per se. But I was wary of Jimmy Nabrit's view that we should not even allege the inferiority of the unequal colored schools, lest we give the Vinson Court yet another opportunity to sidestep the issue of 'Plessy's' continuing Constitutional validity. Like Marshall, I favored the hedge strategy--the 'two-stringed bow.' We would argue that at the very least the facilities were inferior and therefore unconstitutional, but we would not risk a total loss if the Court proved unwilling to overrule 'Plessy.'
"I was skeptical of Carter's proposal to use the research of psychologist Kenneth B. Clark (a City College of New York professor) on the adverse effect of segregation on black children. Clark and his wife, Mamie, had conducted tests on Negro children using black and white dolls. The Negro children liked the white dolls better--they thought white dolls were smarter and prettier. I agreed with Robinson that we should make a purely legal case. From my clerkship days I imagined with horror how skeptical justices might derisively view evidence based on children's dolls... But Marshall was persuaded by Carter to use whatever sociological or psychological evidence supported our position. And some say it worked."
Id. P. 120-123.
Monday, December 18, 2017
ENGAGING COUNSEL
A very few committed people can do what a gross number of laissez-faire people cannot do. Here, I speak of ideas and actions. I have found this to be true from grade school through college; then again, in Butler, Missouri, when I pastored Brooks Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church for nine years, 1995-2004, in rural Bates County.
Reading in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION by William T. Coleman, this fact, about the work a very few committed people can do, was reaffirmed. I discuss briefly these few people's ideas' enduring impact.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
Epigram of chapter 17, "The Brown Team," in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION: SHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA'S PROMISE (2010), p.120, by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss
Bill Coleman, the past Secretary of Transportation, has to my sheer delight, outlined the legal thought processes of that small, committed group of gifted attorneys and experts, into which Coleman had been invited to brainstorm in January 1950, as the first black Supreme Court law clerk, by Thurgood Marshall, then head of the NAACP 's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which was then-on "West 40th Street in Manhattan" in New York, not in Baltimore, Maryland, as now.
This assemblage was a peerless juridical war college of which he writes: "Some faces were familiar and some were not, but over the next five years, I came to know the most dedicated , energetic, and innovative group of people whom I've ever had the privilege of working with."
Among this bevy of lawyers, the first to be mentioned, beside Thurgood Marshall, was Robert Lee Carter. "Carter had graduated from Lincoln University and had been a star pupil at Howard Law School under the tutelage of [William] Hastie and [Charles Hamilton] Houston before receiving a master of law degree at Columbia....He became Marshall's deputy and ran the staff with an iron fist, making sure court deadlines were met, and freeing up Marshall to travel the country. He was more radical than most of his colleagues...Carter was the lead attorney in the Topeka desegregation school case , one of the five cases consolidated for argument in 'Brown v. Board of Education'....In the 1950s Carter and Marshall were an effective duo, complementing each other in skill and temperament , although they later went their separate ways."
Next mentioned are Spottswood W. Robinson III, "also a Howard Law School graduate and a student of Houston's and Hastie's. He and his law partner, Oliver W. Hill, Jr., were in charge of the Virginia desegregation school cases. Robinson became the dean of Howard Law School and was appointed to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...Robinson was Marshall 's cerebral soul mate, a pragmatic strategist, a graceful writer and a smooth oral advocate...The tall, balding Oliver Hill had been a classmate of Thurgood Marshall [at Howard Law School], with whom he competed for first place...He lived to the age of 100 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom."
Other Howard University Law School members of this historic, iconic, legal think-tank were: James M. Nabrit of Northwestern Law School, who "later served as Howard Law School dean, president of Howard University and an ambassador to the United Nations...He and George Edward Chalmers Hayes were the lead counsel in the Washington school desegregation case. Hayes graduated from Brown University and Howard Law School; he later taught at Howard and served as its general counsel. "
Another member of this select group was Charles T. Duncan, "A graduate of Dartmouth and captain of its ski team, Charles graduated from Harvard Law School. He later became a professor and dean of Howard Law School and corporate counsel to the District of Columbia."
I make special note of the Howard University Law School, not only because it is my alma mater, but also because as I had earlier graduated from Howard's School of Communications in 1973. Historical consciousness was a legacy of the Howard experience at every level.
But there were other members of this cadre who had no association with Howard in William Coleman's book, including Coleman, himself. William T. Coleman had graduated Harvard Law School, as had the earlier named iconic deans, Charles Hamilton Houston and William Hastie, who were instructors , legal theorists, at Howard Law School.
In addition, "Constance Baker Motley, a graduate of Columbia Law School...joined the LDF as its expert on housing issues. Quiet but tenacious she earned the respect of her male compatriots by her persistent advocacy... She later became U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York....
"One of the few white faces around the table was that of Jack Greenberg , a twenty-five year old lawyer, just out of Columbia Law School. After many years as director-counsel of the LDF, Greenberg became the dean of the College of Columbia University. Other "white faces" he notes are Louis H. Pollak "my friend and fellow associate at Paul, Weiss; Charles Black, a quirky Texan and professor at Yale Law School; and Jack Weinstein, a professor at Columbia Law School and evidence expert.
"Robert R. Ming Jr., ...worked his way through Northwestern Law for School, graduating at the top of his class as an editor of the school's law review...was a professor of law at Howard for ten years , and later taught at the University of Chicago. An excellent writer, he drafted many of the key legal briefs .
"As a younger, newer member of the team, I listened in awe to the debates , forming my own views from heated arguments among the battle-scared veterans. I supported Robinson and Carter's passionate plea for a strong frontal no holds barred attack on segregation per se. But I was wary of Jimmy Nabrit's view that we should not even allege the inferiority of the unequal colored schools, lest we give the Vinson Court yet another opportunity to sidestep the issue of 'Plessy's' continuing Constitutional validity. Like Marshall, I favored the hedge strategy--the 'two-stringed bow.' We would argue that at the very least the facilities were inferior and therefore unconstitutional, but we would not risk a total loss if the Court proved unwilling to overrule 'Plessy.'
"I was skeptical of Carter's proposal to use the research of psychologist Kenneth B. Clark (a City College of New York professor) on the adverse effect of segregation on black children. Clark and his wife, Mamie, had conducted tests on Negro children using black and white dolls. The Negro children liked the white dolls better--they thought white dolls were smarter and prettier. I agreed with Robinson that we should make a purely legal case. From my clerkship days I imagined with horror how skeptical justices might derisively view evidence based on children's dolls... But Marshall was persuaded by Carter to use whatever sociological or psychological evidence supported our position. And some say it worked."
Id. P. 120-123.
