Interview with Aaron Buchsbaum December 29, 2001 Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
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Georgia Government Documentation Project Series Q: Georgia Legal Services Interview with Aaron Buchsbaum December 29, 2001 Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library DISCLAIMER: Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well- informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. RIGHTS: Unless otherwise noted, all property and copyrights, including the right to publish or quote, are held by Georgia State University (a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia). This transcript is being provided solely for the purpose of teaching or research. Any other use--including commercial reuse, mounting on other systems, or other forms of redistribution--requires permission of the appropriate office at Georgia State University. In addition, no part of the transcript may be quoted for publication without written permission. To quote in print, or otherwise reproduce in whole or in part in any publication, including on the Worldwide Web, any material from this collection, the researcher must obtain permission from (1) the owner of the physical property and (2) the holder of the copyright. Persons wishing to quote from this collection should consult the reference archivist to determine copyright holders for information in this collection. Reproduction of any item must contain the complete citation to the original. CITATION: Buchsbaum, Aaron, Interviewed by Clifford Kuhn, 29 December 2001, P2002-02, Series Q. Georgia Legal Services, Georgia Government Documentation Project, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta. Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library GGDP, Aaron BuchsBaum, Date: 12/29/2001 GEORGIA GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTATION PROJECT GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY SERIES Q: GEORGIA LEGAL SERVICES NARRATOR: AARON BUCHSBAUM INTERVIEWED BY: CLIFFORD M. KUHN LOCATION: TYBEE ISLAND, GEORGIA DATE: DECEMBER 29, 2001 [TAPE 1, SIDE 1] [The volume is quite low.] KUHN: --Aaron Buchsbaum at his home in Tybee Island, Georgia, on December 29th, 2001, as part of the Georgia Legal Services Oral History Project. Aaron, I think I'd like to start by just talking about growing up in Savannah and how your growing up here helped form your outlook on the world and so forth. BUCHSBAUM: Well, I am a native of Savannah. I've really lived here all of my working life except for being away at school and in the military and worked in New York for a while. I guess I'm a product of my environment, and that environment of course encompasses a very large, loving, caring, nurturing family. My parents were both born in Savannah, and I had lots of aunts and uncles, and my grandmother lived Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library in the same home that we did my entire life until she died, when I was about a junior 1 GGDP, Aaron BuchsBaum, Date: 12/29/2001 in college or senior in college. My family always had feelings for the people, and I think whatever I am, I'm a product of that family and of that community. I grew up in the Jim Crow South, and it wasn't anything that I particularly liked. I can't say that when I was a young person I did too much about it. It bothered me intellectually, conceptually, but I was not terribly active in the street sense of the word, but I was outspoken, I think, in a number of instances, and I think that's largely as a result of my family background. KUHN: What about your family background? BUCHSBAUM: Well, just that my family strongly believed in justice and justice for everybody. I think as I mentioned, I never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from or whether there was going to be a roof over my head, and we always had a car in the family that was available to drive. We were not wealthy, but I consider that we were very privileged because we really didn't have any serious want, and I saw people who did. It very much upset me. It bothered me. KUHN: You said [...]. BUCHSBAUM: Well, I mean, just generally speaking, I had my social and political views, and I didn't keep them to myself. KUHN: This is, like, in high school or whatever. BUCHSBAUM: In high school, in college and beyond that. I remember an accounting professor I had in my freshman year at college in Tulane. I remember his Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library name, too: J. C. Van Kirk. He gave a white supremacist lecture in an accounting class, and that was the first time that I really got my dander up. I really was upset about that and spoke to somebody in the dean's office. Nothing ever came of it, of 2 GGDP, Aaron BuchsBaum, Date: 12/29/2001 course. He was probably a tenured professor at the time. Maybe that's why I never became an accountant. I don't know. KUHN: It's kind of implausible to give a-- BUCHSBAUM: Yes. You know, there was a great deal of publicity and concern when I resigned from the Savannah Bar Association, which was many, many years ago, because they would hold social functions at clubs that had discriminatory policies. The particular one that resulted in my resignation happened to be at the Savannah Golf Club, which had Jewish members (I'm Jewish), but did not permit black members. I thought that was an abomination and the Savannah Bar Association, stating that it represented the legal community, should not have used those facilities and should not have gone into a place where the sign says, "welcome almost everybody." I tried to get the Bar Association to change it. They didn't change it. And I tried to get them to adopt a policy similar to one that the American Bar [Association] had adopted after a controversy over a facility in Miami, when the American Bar Association was meeting in Miami. And incidentally, Lewis Powell, who was the president of the American Bar Association at that time, later became justice of the United States Supreme Court, and he took immediate and direct action. He pulled the meeting away from this facility and stated that the policy of the American Bar Association is not to countenance that Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library type of discrimination. The Savannah Bar Association did no such thing, so I wrote a letter to each member of the Savannah bar, and the newspaper got hold of it, and it became a cause 3 GGDP, Aaron BuchsBaum, Date: 12/29/2001 celebre. The Bar Association, I think, has changed since that time, but they never would adopt a policy stating that they would not use such facilities, and therefore, even though I've been asked by a number of incoming presidents, I never rejoined the Savannah Bar Association and haven't missed it. KUHN: So it became a real cause celebre when that happened? BUCHSBAUM: It got a lot of publicity in the newspaper, and I got letters from a number of lawyers, members of the association, mostly the black lawyers, who applauded my stand, and from some others from surprising sources, who said they agreed with me. Of course, there were some who didn't agree with me, and I will not name one in particular, but I'll tell you about it after we're off camera. KUHN: So in college you were beginning to formulate your views on the world and be outspoken about these kinds of-- BUCHSBAUM: Yes. KUHN: You'd speak out for what you thought was right and against what you thought-- BUCHSBAUM: Yes. KUHN: You come back here in 1958, and I guess you joined the office of Brannen and Clark, right? BUCHSBAUM: Brannen and Clark and Hester. KUHN: Brannen, Clark and Hester. Copyright Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library BUCHSBAUM: Right. I was an associate under the old Savannah system, which was you don't get a salary; we let you work here, and you learn, and I did learn. I learned a great deal from [H.] Sol Clark about how to conduct myself. Sol was a very fine 4 GGDP, Aaron BuchsBaum, Date: 12/29/2001 lawyer. Perry Brannen was an outstanding trial lawyer. His son is now superior court judge, Perry [Brannen] Jr., and Ed Hester was another lawyer in the firm. There were a couple of other associates there from time to time. That's how I got my feet wet in the practice of law. Basically you walk on the edge of a dock and you jump into the water and you start to swim. KUHN: Now, Sol had of course been involved with Legal Aid in Savannah for over a decade and had been involved nationally as early as the fifties. BUCHSBAUM: Well, he's Mr. Legal Aid in the state of Georgia. As you know, today is his ninety-fifth birthday. Happy birthday, Sol. KUHN: Did he get you involved in that kind of activities? BUCHSBAUM: I'm sure that he did. Obviously, I was interested in it, and I'm sure that Sol had a great deal to do with my specific involvement in the organization, yes.