One of the least publicly recognized heroes of the civil rights
movement in the United States, John Minor Wisdom served as a member
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1957 until
his death in 1999 and wrote many of the landmark decisions
instrumental in desegregating the American South. In this revealing
biography, law professor Joel William Friedman explores Judge
Wisdom's substantial legal contributions and political work at a
critical time in the history of the South.
In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed Wisdom to the Fifth
Circuit, which included some of the most deeply segregated southern
states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Texas. In the tumultuous two decades following its decision in
Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court issued only a few
civil rights decisions, preferring instead to affirm Fifth Circuit
Court opinions or let them stand without hearing an appeal. Judge
Wisdom, therefore, authored many of the decisions that transformed
the South and broke down barriers of all kinds for African
Americans, including the desegregation of public schools.
In preparing this first full-length biography of Judge Wisdom,
Friedman had unrestricted access to Wisdom's voluminous repository
of personal and professional papers. In addition, he draws on
personal interviews with law clerks who served under Judge Wisdom,
resulting in a unique, behind-the-scenes account of some of the
nation's most important legal decisions: 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 had previously kept black
Americans from voting. Friedman also explores Wisdom's political
life prior to joining the federal bench, including his pivotal role
in resurrecting the Louisiana Republican Party and in securing the
Republican presidential nomination for Eisenhower.
A compelling account of how a child of privilege from one of
America's most socially and racially stratified cities came to
serve as the driving force behind the legal effort to end
segregation, Champion of Civil Rights offers judicial biography at
its best.