Showdown - Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed

Zusatztext 77577438 Informationen zum Autor Wil Haygood Klappentext Over the course of his forty-year career! Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine! integrated schools! and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this galvanizing biography! award-winning author Wil Haygood uses the framework of the dramatic! contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice! to weave a provocative and moving look at Marshall's life as well as at the politicians! lawyers! activists! and others who shaped-or desperately tried to stop-the civil rights movement. An authoritative account of one of the most transformative justices of the twentieth century! Showdown makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall's lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation. 1 The Ghosts of Little Rock Please, sir, no nigger on the Supreme Court bench. —an Arkansas family in a letter to Senator John McClellan about the Marshall nomination John mcclellan was going to stop Thurgood Marshall. He simply could not imagine the likes of Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court, so he convinced himself he could prevent it. He was Senator John McClellan, and he was powerful, and people feared him. He had a hard ­face—­a dead ringer for the comic Jack Benny if Benny had been dipped in ­plaster—­and a hard, scratchy voice. He wore ­horn-­rimmed glasses from which, time and again during previous hearings while sitting in judgment of others, he peered down on witnesses with menacing glares. He combed his hair straight back, in a severe manner. McClellan was one of the Senate ­barons—­men who had served for years and seemed to have grown out of the very building that housed the U.S. Senate. He loathed small talk and abhorred social teas and the like, which many senators and their wives seemed to enjoy. Even when his Arkansas constituents visited his Washington office, he seemed impatient, as if he wished they could state their business as fast as possible and be on their way. He’d shoot an aide that look and then the aide would begin motioning ­toward the door and McClellan would toss final words at his guests: thanks for coming by, say hi to the folks back home, don’t forget to take a souvenir. He had been sent to Washington by Arkansas voters, first as a congressman in 1934 and then, in 1942, as a U.S. senator. And now he found himself with a coveted seat on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. He told his aides to start digging. He wanted as much information on Thurgood Marshall as he could get, and he wanted it as fast as he could get it. John McClellan looked upon himself as a force for good, standing between Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. In Washington, McClellan prided himself on his activities, his constant motion. At one time, he sat on fourteen subcommittees. In 1954, he found himself on a committee with the Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, who was galloping around the nation’s capital on a ­one-­man witch hunt for Communists. McCarthy had charged the State Department with having dozens of Communists in its employ. At a time when Americans were fearful of Communism, McCarthy’s charges landed him on the front pages. Many were riled up. All of this intrigued McClellan, as ready as anyone to corral a Communist. But McCarthy, who was a shambling and reckless figure, soon made McClellan nervous. It was McCarthy’s lack of discipline and some of his aides who were utterly unprofessional. “I’m fond of Joe McCarthy,” McClellan allowed, “but he’s getting out of hand, and we have to do something to control him.” McClellan quit the ­McCarthy-­led committee he was on. He escaped the shadow of McCarthy with prescient timing, as the ­Army-­McCarthy heari...

Produktdetails

• Autoren: WIl Haygood
• Verlag: Vintage USA
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erschienen: 31.08.2016
• EAN: 9780307947376
• ISBN: 978-0-307-94737-6
• Seiten: 416
• Abmessung: 130 mm x 202 mm x 20 mm
• Themen: Belletristik > Erzählende Literatur > Briefe, Tagebücher; Sozialwissenschaften, Recht,Wirtschaft > Recht > Allgemeines, Lexika