Interview with Samuel Wilbert Tucker

2006 (Creation date: 1985-05-25)

Elwood, William A

Part one. Civil rights attorney Samuel Tucker reviews his education, his experiences as a young lawyer admitted to the bar in 1934, his service in the military as a young man, and his experience as one of the first black Civilian Conservation Corps officers. Mr. Tucker became involved in the civil rights struggle with the Alexandria Library Sit-in, and he gives the basics of this event and the subsequent court cases about it. The solution, to build a separate library for black people, was not satisfactory to Tucker. Part two. Mr. Tucker talks about his childhood education. He reviews the Petersburg Library case, as well as Baker v. Carr, Wright v. Rockefeller, and the Burnett case. He recounts the case he argued in front of the Supreme Court that had the most impact, Green v. New Kent County. He says that the second most important theme in civil rights cases is reapportionment. Another civil rights issue fought in the courts concerns criminal cases like Hampton v. the commonwealth, about the death penalty for rape used only on black men who raped white women. Part three. Mr. Tucker recalls the Martinsville Seven case, concerning death penalty cases where confessions were not voluntary and representation was not adequate. He discusses what local counsel means and the role of the local community lawyer.

Tucker, Samuel Wilbert, 1913-1990 (Interviewee); Elwood, William A

African Americans -- Civil rights -- History; African Americans -- Education -- History; Discrimination in education -- Law and legislation -- United States; School integration -- United States -- History; Segregation in education -- United States -- History

William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project

Robertson Media Center

English

Road to Brown : the untold story of "the man who killed Jim Crow."; William A. Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project

Source footage for the documentary, The road to Brown : the untold story of “the man who killed Jim Crow” (California Newsreel, 1990), about the life of Charles Hamilton Houston, his crusade for civil rights, and the events that led to "Brown vs. the Board of Education," the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared the 'separate but equal' doctrine illegal.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Recorded at Alexandria, Virginia.
Creation/Production Credits
Digitized by: Cincinnati, Ohio : The PPS Group, 2006.