Search Constraints
Start Over You searched for: Date 1987 ✖ Remove constraint Date: 1987 Collection William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project ✖ Remove constraint Collection: William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney and professor J. Clay Smith discusses the beginning of Howard University Law School and John Mercer Langston. Mr. Smith says the law school's mission was always to make the Constitution a living document. Early students didn't have a high school diploma, just a certificate of literacy. Most first African American lawyers and judges in different states were graduates of Howard. Charles Hamilton Houston taught at Howard; he himself went to Harvard Law School. Houston was known as a hard taskmaster. He was criticized for trying to Harvardize Howard, but he knew the law school had to be comparable to others. Part two. Mr. Smith recalls Houston practicing civil rights test cases in court rooms at Howard University. Both faculty and students would pose as the different Supreme Court justices trying the case the next week. Thurgood Marshall was great with people; William Hastie was a gifted writer. Mr. Smith recounts that either Houston or Marshall had to sleep in caskets in African American mortuaries while traveling around the South to assist other lawyers due to threats from the KKK. Mr. Smith contends that the scholarly community is still biased about giving credit to African American scholars. Part three. Mr. Smith talks about Houston as the architect of the modern civil rights movement. Women's liberation lawyers, even conservative lawyers, use the legal strategy designed by Houston to change law. From 3:50 to 10:40, footage of Houston and Hastie portraits. From 10:40 to end, Alvin J. Bronstein interviewed in his office. As a young lawyer Mr. Bronstein traveled south for 1964 Freedom Summer. He was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to work on a law suit that would make hotels serve African Americans. He then went to Mississippi and stayed for five years as a trial lawyer in Macomb where there had been 37 church bombings. He set up offices around the South as part of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee funded by the ACLU.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Professor Jack Bass talks about Judge J. Waites Waring and his daring decisions. Mr. Bass also recalls the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals applying a broad interpretation of Brown v. Board of Education to its decisions during the civil rights era. For example, in the Montgomery bus boycott case, the Fifth Circuit Court declared that Brown had overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Mr. Bass offers remarks concerning Judge Richard Taylor Rives, Judge John R. Brown's dissent in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, and socioeconomic changes in the South. Part two. Mr. Bass describes the African American diaspora to the North. Mr. Bass talks about Judge Frank M. Johnson and his judicial decisions reshaping the structure of society in Alabama. Mr. Bass comments on the problems faced by judges, as well as white lawyers who represented African Americans, and their families when the the judges applied equal rights and protections to minorities. He also talks about Judge John R. Brown, pre-civil rights era voter registration for African Americans, absurd voter registration rules, and intimidation of African American plaintiffs. Part three. Mr. Bass quotes Judge John R. Brown's dissent in Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Bass says that Charles Houston thought that education reform was the key to promoting civil rights in all areas. Bass continues to talk about judges of the Fifth Circuit, including Elbert Tuttle and John Minor Wisdom. In 1963 in Birmingham, Bull Connor expelled a large group of African American students a few weeks before graduation, a decision that a local judge upheld, but Judge Tuttle took immediate action to open the school to all students the next day. Judge Wisdom was instrumental in calling an end to the deliberate speed clause of the Brown decision by ruling that the only constitutional desegregation plan is one that works quickly. Wisdom also put the onus of desegregation plans on school boards and administrations instead of politicians. Part four. Mr. Bass explains that the Fifth Circuit Court defined a new kind of federalism. They incorporated into the Constitution the concept of equality found in the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Bass declares that the great heroes of the civil rights movement are the African American plaintiffs in the lawsuits. He comments on the changes in the South after Congress validated the decisions of the courts with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voter Rights Act of 1965. Mr. Bass comments on the legal struggle in South Carolina, especially noting Judge Matthew Perry and Judge Skelly Wright.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. James Duren explains how he became an activist for education in Clarendon County, South Carolina, by uncovering corruption in Clarendon School District One. He formed a parents group that grew into 200 members to fight the misuse of money by the district. Other parents describe how they became involved and actions they took to try to change the situation. Summmerton in Clarendon County, South Carolina, was the district involved in Briggs v. Elliott, one of the cases in Brown v. Board of Education. Part two. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One describe the fraud, mismanagement and extremely low educational standards of the district. Part three. Similar content to Disc 204. Part four. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One discuss race relations in South Carolina in the 1980s, as well as the many problems with Clarendon School District 1. Part five. Similar content to Disc 206.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Chester High School band and football team, Chester, South Carolina. Part two and three. Principal Jeff Brown gives a tour of Chester High School, Chester, South Carolina. Part four. At 19:20, Mr. Brown attends a Chester Rotary Club meeting. Then more footage at high school. Part five. Footage of students at Chester High School. At 7:20, interview with Principal Jeff Brown. Mr. Brown recalls what schools were like when he began his career in education. Part six. Principal Jeff Brown recounts the early days of his education career in Chester, South Carolina. He describes the separate but equal doctrine and how the community imposed certain strictures on black teachers. He also talks about the changes brought by integration. Part eight. Interview with Principal Jeff Brown of Chester High School continues. At 8:38, footage of high school activities and students. At 14:20 interview with Mr. Brown recommences.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Morgan, Charles, 1930-2009, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Attorney Charles Morgan and US Congressman John Lewis discuss many topics, including: Alabama legally disenfranchising African Americans with voting registration requirements like the poll tax and literacy tests; Reynolds v. Sims, the one-man, one-vote case; Bull Connor; Lewis being jailed because he was with an interracial group using public transportation; Lewis being beaten in Montgomery; Freedom Rides; the voter registration drive; Brown v. Board of Education; the importance of the Christian Church, the one place where African Americans could have control; Lewis meeting Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy. Part two. Morgan and Lewis continue their conversation, agreeing that in spite of symbols like the Confederate Flag flying over the Alabama Capitol, things are better because African Americans are allowed into positions of power. They discuss the racism deeply embedded in American society, as well as the most important aspect of the civil rights movement, its law-based nonviolence. Lewis recalls his involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the difficulties he had meeting with white activists like Morgan because it was against the law. Part three. Morgan and Lewis describe the 1960s civil rights movement as a family, especially on the inside, and its informal, organic progress. They say that historians ignore Charles Hamilton Houston because they are ignorant of much of history. They review Sweatt v. Painter. Part four. Morgan and Lewis remark upon Charles Houston and suggest that integration is still, in the 1980s, in the embryonic stage. Lewis reminisces about the Sears and Roebuck catalog being his wish book as a child; he wanted to buy incubator to have chickens because he used to preach to the family's chickens. The two men talk about the Voter Education Project and the vote as a tool of liberation. They say that voter registration really did work because white politicians started speaking to African Americans and, at low levels of government, African Americans were starting to get elected. Part five. The relationship between Lewis and Morgan is discussed. Footage of Lewis walking to Capitol building to cast vote, then exiting the Capitol building after vote. Footage of Congressional office building.h
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of classes at Scott's Branch High School in Clarendon County, South Carolina, and some rural housing. At 13:41, Journalist John Norton, an education reporter for a Southern newspaper, talks about how Clarendon County has changed, as well as how it hasn't, since the Briggs v. Elliott case. Part two. Norton recounts some of the history of the school districts in Clarendon County, South Carolina. He outlines how the schools have been neglected, and therefore how the whole community is failing. Part three. Norton describes the education situation in Clarendon County, South Carolina. At 7:18, footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including rural roads, Liberty Hill Church, cotton gin.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Summerton, Clarendon County, South Carolina, the origin of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which was part of Brown v. Board of Education. At 5:10, interview with Clarendon School District One Superintendent Joseph C. Watson begins. Mr. Watson describes how the Summerton school district is not yet integrated, as it consists of only African American students despite the fact that the community is 40% white. He explains why he thinks the school district is so bad and defends the school's poor performance. Part two. Watson continues to explain the policies of the district school board, especially concerning budget restrictions. He reflects on his performance as superintendent. At 8:07, footage of Clarendon School District One.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Joseph Rauh talks about his clerkships to the US Supreme Court for both Justices Cardozo and Frankfurter. He discusses the 1941 Executive Order by President Franklin Roosevelt, called the Fair Employment Act, which Rauh wrote. During World War II, he worked as Gen. MacArthur's secretary and in the Lend-Lease Administration. He recalls the founding of the Americans for Democratic Action in 1947. He tells anecdotes about working with A. Philip Randolph. Part two. Mr. Rauh remembers, during the 1940s, African Americans and whites could not eat together in a restaurant in Washington DC. The District was a segregated city until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Mr. Rauh talks about his acquaintance with Charles Hamilton Houston. Mr. Rauh describes Houston's work in the Steele case. He explains the new civil rights platform adopted at the 1948 Democratic Convention. Part three. Mr. Rauh comments on President Truman's civil rights record. He states that the best US President for civil rights is Lyndon Johnson and the worst is Ronald Reagan. Mr. Rauh credits Charles Houston with the first use of the argument of state action in discrimination cases. He recounts his dealings with NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell, especially their efforts in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Mr. Rauh recalls President John Kennedy, when proposing what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, pointing out the irony that Alabama Sheriff Bull Connor did more for civil rights than anybody else. Mr. Rauh tell stories about civil rights champion President Johnson working to pass legislation. Part four. Mr. Rauh describes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its effects on the nation's history using the example of the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 primarily by Senators elected by African American constituents from the South. The first meaningful civil rights legislation since Reconstruction was the Act of 1964. Mr. Rauh suggests reasons for why Charles Houston is not well known.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Judge Juanita Kidd Stout remembers hearing Charles Houston speak in 1937 in the Gaines case in Missouri and describes what it was like in the courtroom. She talks about becoming a lawyer, being an African American woman; she declares she never felt discrimination in the field of law. She tells the story of how she came to work for Houston when she was young. Stout recalls what Houston was like, his belief in the Constitution and the rule of law, and his plans for challenges to US law decades into the future. Part two. Judge Stout wants to know why Houston is not well-known, as most lawyers consider him to be one of the best legal minds ever. It is tragic that he is not taught in civil rights courses. Judge Stout declares that people now don't realize the deprivations that African Americans suffered before the civil rights movement. She recalls that everyone was aware then that it was Houston who did all the groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education. Stout discusses how Houston prepared for the case. She also talks about Judge William Henry Hastie and his appointment to the Third Circuit appeals court. Judge Stout's advice to young people: we will always need more lawyers because we always have new laws to handle changes in society. Part three. Judge Stout describes how she became a judge and remembers cases that stood out for her and her career. She declares that law is not passive; it must grow, change and be discarded. Also, many laws have been wrong and unjust. Stout recalls that Houston died at age 54 just before the the Brown decision. At 11:40 to end, footage of Judge Stout in her office, working. Part four. Footage of Stout's office.
