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Champion of Civil Rights

As we approach the final days of Black History Month for 2009, the law library has added the biography of a judge active in the civil right movement -- Champion of Civil Rights: Judge John Minor Wisdom by Joel William Friedman.

Judge Wisdom (1905-1999) is described as one of the least recognized heroes of the civil rights movement, as he wrote many of the landmark decisions instrumental in desegregating the South. These decisions from the 5th Circuit Court include the admission of the first black student to the University of Mississippi, the initiation of contempt proceedings against Mississippi governor Ross Barnett, and the destruction of obstacles that kept black Americans from voting. As a child of privilege from a socially and racially stratified society, Wisdom was an unlikely person to serve as a driving force behind the legal effort to end segregation.

Find this book on the "New Books Display" for several weeks and then in the general library collection.

Full post as published by V.U.Lawcity - The Valpo Law Blawg on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).