My Day: Legal Genius Series

Jack Greenberg, a Jewish lawyer who leaded up the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., for 23 years ,  died this week.  He was 91. The New York Times lauded him as ‘one of the most powerful white figures in a movement’.    I am sure this name sounds familiar to you, especially if you were around doing the civil rights era in the 60’s or have read everything you could on the movement, including the struggle for voting rights.

Over the years in this column I have written other articles with this same title.   The first legal genius article was about E. Brice Cunningham, a living legend, who was a partner in one of America’s most prestigious law firms, Finch, Lockridge and Cunningham; and the second article, Judge L. A. Bedford, Dallas’ first black judge (Requiem for a Jurist 1926-2014).  These frontier  genius’ are so very important to our history and they should not be forgotten or casually tossed aside.  I was Brice Cunningham’s legal assistant for three years, modeling part time, and remained a part of the legal world after moving to corporate America.  Young attorneys like Sam Hudson, Royce West, Craig Washington, Marcus Ranger and others, came to the firm looking for jobs and advice.  These were all black attorneys.  The noted attorneys of that day were  Joe Lockridge, D. B. Mason,  L. Clifford Davis, Fort Worth,  Fred Finch,  and W. J. Durham.  The work was long, abundant, audacious  and demanding.   W. J. Durham and Thurgood Marshall were classmates, which gets me back to Jack Greenberg and the Texas connection.

The nucleus of the black legal network in the 60’s was Thurgood Marshall.  He collaborated  with and delegated the civil rights workload across the country.  This generation clearly had a plan with vision, opportunity driven and they worked it.  For example, one evening while working late in the office, the phone rang.  It was Thurgood Marshall, calling from New York,  looking for Brice.  The instructions were simple.  “Go down to  Nacogdoches, Texas,  and get so-and-so out of jail.”

Jack Greenberg is deemed the last survivor of a renown legendary Civil Rights Legal Team.  He is the last surviving member of the original legal team assembled by Thurgood Marshall, the founding director-counsel of the legal defense fund and later the first African American Supreme Court Justice.   This team of seven broke down barriers and set examples in the matter of law that are still researched in law libraries around the globe, with voting rights at the very top.  These  battles they fought. . . and won. . . leaving a legacy of legal battles for people all over the world.  Did I mention  voting rights?

In all, Jack Greenberg was before the Supreme Court in more than 40 civil rights cases.  Many prominent attorneys have been a part of the Legal Defense Fund, including Barack Obama, who in one case was  co-op attorney on his path to the presidency.

When Thurgood Marshall joined the federal bench, he named Jack Greenberg to succeed him as director of the defense fund now up to 25 attorneys.   Jack Greenberg found time to write a book about his odyssey entitled “Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution”.

Is there a second generation at bat?

Ester Davis can be reached at www.esterday.com or 214.376.9000