Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights / Steve Babson, Dave Riddle, and David Elsila

LAWThe Color of GREAT LAKES BOOKS A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu Editor Thomas Klug Charles K. Hyde Marygrove College Wayne State University Susan Higman Larsen Advisory Editors Detroit Institute of Arts Jeffrey Abt Wayne State University Philip P. Mason Prescott, Arizona and Ea gle Harbor, Fredric C. Bohm Michigan Michigan State University Dennis Moore Michael J. Chiarappa Consulate General of Canada Western Michigan University Erik C. Nordberg Sandra Sageser Clark Michigan Technological University Michigan Historical Center Deborah Smith Pollard Brian Leigh Dunnigan University of Michigan– Dearborn Clements Library David Roberts De Witt Dykes Toronto, Ontario Oakland University Joe Grimm Michael O. Smith Bloomfi eld Hills, Michigan Wayne State University Richard H. Harms Joseph M. Turrini Calvin College Wayne State University Laurie Harris Arthur M. Woodford Pleasant Ridge, Michigan Harsens Island, Michigan LAWThe Color of STEVE BABSON, DAVE RIDDLE, AND DAVID ELSILA Wayne State University Press Detroit © 2010 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Babson, Steve. The color of law : Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the struggle for labor and civil rights / Steve Babson, Dave Riddle, and David Elsila. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8143-3496-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Goodman, Ernest, 1906–1997. 2. Lawyers—Michigan—Detroit—Biography. 3. Civil rights—United States—History—20th century. I. Riddle, Dave. II. Elsila, Dave. III. Title. KF368.G594B33 2010 340.092—dc22 [B] 2010011104 ∞ Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Goodman family for the generous support of the publication of this volume. For ordering information plus video, photos, links and updates on the issues central to Ernie Goodman’s life, go to erniegoodman.com. Designed by Walter Schwarz Typeset by Westchester Book Group Composed in Grotesque MT and Life Contents Preface vii 1. In Dark Times 1 2. Out of the Ghetto 9 3. Taking a Stand 46 4. Home Front 89 5. Hard Landing 134 6. Winter Soldier 179 7. Getting By 224 8. Conspiracy of Belief 238 9. Southern Exposure 285 10. Mississippi 321 11. Rebellion and Reaction 366 12. Attica 417 13. The Longer View 444 Notes 467 Index 543 Photos follow page 284 v This page intentionally left blank Preface “How do you go about choosing a client?” Said the Michigan Bar to Ernie, one day. “Do you look for someone grossly defiant, Or someone with whom the Left is pliant, Or corporate clients who know how to pay?” “I fight for those in need,” Ernie said; “I fend for those who’ve no more hope, Sold on the block for so much a head, The poor, the black, and those called red, And anyone else at the end of his rope.” Hal and Esther Shapiro, A Tribute to Ernest Goodman (1980) his is a book about the people and the social forces that have changed our society over the last century, told through the story of Ernie TGoodman, the Detroit lawyer and politi cal activist who played such a unique role in the struggle for social justice. There is much in the story of Goodman’s life that speaks to activists today and the lawyers who represent them. Racial discrimination and class oppression, as Goodman well knew, do not openly declare themselves as injustice. Rather, when prejudice is well established, it takes on a legal col- oring, codifi ed in statutes and court rulings that justify in equality and uphold the status quo. Often enough, it is the thick, timeworn varnish of legal pre cedent that smothers innovation and gives power and privilege the sheen of legitimacy: own ers can dismiss long-term employees and move jobs elsewhere because the common law has “always” favored the mas- ter’s deed of own ership (however recent) over the servants’ sweat equity. Until the last third of the twentieth century, the color of law was also uniformly white: racial segregation was the norm and courts routinely up- held the separate and inferior treatment of minorities. At moments of crisis, when precedent was no longer compelling and protesters demanded change, it was the thin veneer of legal rationalization that gave cover to an vii viii PREFACE underlying tyranny: as Goodman came to know, even the most peaceful demonstrators could be arrested for “disturbing the peace,” giving the color of law to police actions that nullifi ed the Bill of Rights. Goodman wrestled with these many moments when the law was at odds with changing conceptions of social justice, when, at times, even the sem- blance of legality was stripped away and all that remained was the blatant injustice of lynch law or the police riot. The questions he had to address at these moments in his career are no less compelling today. How does an attorney committed to social justice make a living when the people he or she represents are so often the ones least able to pay for repre sen ta tion? When these dispossessed people confront laws that perpetuate injustice, how does a lawyer sworn to uphold the legal system represent social move- ments that so often have to break the law in order to change it? And when do threats to national security become such a clear and present danger that they warrant suspension of the very constitutional rights we claim as our birthright? There are no simple answers to these questions today, and in Good- man’s time it was all the harder to come to terms with these issues when government leaders branded dissenters as un-American, targeting them for harassment in their professional and personal lives. Goodman persevered nevertheless, and his life demonstrates the human and ethical qualities that helped him survive as a partisan of social justice. We have many people to thank for assisting us in chronicling this story. Goodman himself wanted to write his own account of how the politi cal and social issues of his time intersected with his life, but the several book projects he began fell by the wayside. He never found the time for the memoirs he had hoped to write, but he did produce something of an outline in the form of a massive inventory of letters, documents, oral histories, travelogues, court rec ords, and draft essays. He was a notorious packrat, and the sum total of the collection he left at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, located at Wayne State University (his alma mater) in Detroit, gives ample testimony to the interest he had in making sense of his long and productive life. Goodman’s compilation of this record was an obvious asset to the au- thors of this book. He was a good storyteller and he knew how to muster the evidence that would make his case. We have diligently mined the documentary lode that Goodman left behind, but we have also been mindful that he was, inevitably, selecting evidence that would advance his interpre- tation of events. We have been as prudent as we know how in checking his version against other accounts. PREFACE ix Goodman found many collaborators along the way who would help him tell this story, and two of these individuals deserve special mention. William Bryce, a labor educator and activist in Detroit, conceived of an oral history project in 1995 that would put Ernie’s recollections on video- tape. Goodman and Bryce planned the sequence of interviews with an eye for historical continuity, and Goodman carefully prepared for each ses- sion, attentive to the dates, circumstances, and people whose names might otherwise have eluded recall. The resulting seven hours of video, titled “Counsel for the Common People,” is an unusually coherent and lively account of Goodman’s life, made all the more engaging by the humanity and charm of Ernie’s on-camera storytelling. The interviews that Professor Edward Littlejohn conducted with Good- man in 1996 and 1997 cannot match the compelling immediacy of video, but they offer something just as valuable to anyone chronicling the life of a twentieth- century lawyer. A professor of law at Wayne State University, Littlejohn had hoped to write Goodman’s biography. Although that project remained unrealized, the extended transcript of his conversations with Goodman provided us with many insights into the legal issues and trial strategies that defi ned Goodman’s career as a defense attorney. Both the Bryce and Littlejohn interviews are housed at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. These oral histories, com- bined with the extensive collection of Goodman’s papers (pro cessed and unpro cessed), would have been enough to make the Reuther archives our single most important resource. But as any labor or social historian who has used the Reuther archives can tell you, there is a massive amount of documentary material housed in this fi rst- rate library. We relied on the Reuther’s skilled and patient archivists to help us sift through the dozens of collections with material related to Goodman’s professional and politi- cal life. We owe every member of the staff our gratitude. Two other archival resources relevant to our work were the Bentley Historical Collection at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in the Tamiment Library at New York University. The Tamiment was especially important. The National Lawyers Guild collection, now expanded to three hundred boxes—including four hundred thousand pages of FBI documents—is a deep reservoir of documentary material.

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