19 the seat was, and get admitted up there. But unless you had something to do with the Supreme Court, there wasn't any need for you to do that, because you were going to do your practice in the local courtsthe trial courts. Hicke: The state supreme court you're talking about? Poole: The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court. I've got this old diploma. It's right over there, I think. Hold it just a second. This is my college diploma. Hicke: "Bachelor of Arts, 1936, from the University of Michigan." And this is the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1940. You were admitted in 1940. Poole: Yes, 1940, that is correct. So, anyhow, I decided to do that. In those days, the district court would appoint people to defend persons who were indigent. You didn't get paid. So, I did some of that because I was interested in the federal practice anyhow. Hicke: This is in Pennsylvania? Poole: No, when I got here. In Pennsylvania I worked for a small office. There were four lawyers in it. Hicke: Brown and Jones? Poole: Brown and Jones. Homer Brown and Richard Jones and a couple of lawyers who left shortly after I came there. I made the third person. I was an employee of them, of course, and did all the dirty little things that you had to do. Military Service; Trials and Tribulations Poole: I liked trial work. When I was an enlisted man up in New Hampshire, I was, of course, a member of a bar, and so I was called upon to defend some of the soldiers in courts martial, because though there was a designated trial judge advocate and a designated defense counsel, enlisted people mistrusted them and thought that they would be delivered into the hands of the Philistines if they took their counsel. So they went through what they called a Form 20; every soldier had a Form 20 that listed who he was, date of birth, where he came from, his schooling, and what his occupation was. That way, theoretically, they could assign you to something that would be befitting your educational skill. Well, as you may know, in those days the armed services were 20 thoroughly and entirely segregated. So I was working for the National Labor Relations Board. I told you that, didn't I? Hicke: Yes, you did. Poole: I got my draft notice while I was in Washington with the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board], and they sent me to the North Atlantic Wing of the Air Transport Command based in Manchester, New Hampshire. That was about, I guess, probably forty miles from Boston. I was assigned to an all-black squadron, which was primarily one that did labor work. Hicke: You were doing some courts martial? Poole: Yes. Not right away. What really happened was, there was a soldier--a Caucasian soldier--who got into a tremendous thing with his commanding officer, and they were out to really take his hide off. He didn't want the defense counsel that was selected for him to defend him, because he felt that he had no chance. So they went through these forms. These forms were coded by having holes in them at certain places. And where you could find this long needle to go through there, it would pick out people, so they could see who on there had training. Hicke: They found you. Poole: I became a staff sergeant very quickly. My commanding officer said, "I'm not going to let you hang around as a private." So within about four or five months I was a staff sergeant. My commanding officer came and said, "The commandant of the base wants you come up to headquarters." And I said, "What have I done?" And he said, "What they want you to do is they want you to defend somebody from one of the other outfits who is in trouble." So I went up there, and they explained to me what it was. The base trial judge advocate was a fellow named--! 've forgotten his first name. His name was Oberg. Major Oberg explained to me that this man had really been a hard person to deal with, that he'd been in trouble before, and he had threatened his commanding officer. In fact, he was a big, powerful guy. He said he rejected the defense counsel. "And so we looked up these names, and we found your name and four or five others." He took this to him, and he looked at it, and he said, "Hey, who is this guy?" And he said, you know, "This is not a white noncom?" Major Oberg said, "He's not," and he said, "That's the one I want." So, I got the manuals and the specifications and all that, and I went to the trial. Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Northern California U.S. District Court Oral History Series Cecil F. Poole CIVIL RIGHTS, LAW, AND THE FEDERAL COURTS; THE LIFE OF CECIL POOLE, 1914-1997 With an Introduction by William K. Coblentz Interviews conducted by Carole Hicke in 1993 Copyright c 1997 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-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. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. 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, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Cecil F. Poole dated June 1, 1997. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Cecil F. Poole requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Cecil F. Poole, "Civil Rights, Law, and the Federal Courts: The Life of Cecil Poole, 1914-1997," an oral history conducted in 1993 by Carole Hicke, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1997. Copy no. San Francisco Chronicle December 19. 1 997 Cecil F. Poole the U.S. Customs Service in San Services in memory of Judge Francisco for nearly two decades, Cecil F. Poole will be held at 3:30 died Wednesday in Temple, Texas, at the of 88. p.m. Friday at Herbst Auditorium, age 401 Van Ness Ave. in San Francis Born in Cheyenne, Wyo., in co. 1909, Mr. Potts graduated from Oklahoma State in 1933 Judge Poole, 83, a senior mem University and the of Cameron ber of the U.S. Court of Appeals in joined faculty San Francisco and former U.S. at College in Lawton, Okla., where he torney, died November 12 from taught chemistry. of after complications pneumonia After spending three years at a illness. long the college, Mr. Potts went to work Judge Poole's distinguished le for the federal government He gal career spanned 55 years and in served for nearly 40 years in a vari cluded service as a military attor ety of capacities, from a shrimp in ney, a federal labor relations law spector in New Orleans to director yer, and as a prosecutor for the of the UJS. Customs Laboratory in City and County of San Francisco San Francisco, his last job before and the UJS. Justice Department. retiring hi 1975. He also served as a legal secre Mr. Potts was a member of the tary to the governor of California, American Chemical Society, the a private attorney and a federal Oklahoma State University Alum judge at the district and appellate ni Association, the U.S. Coast levels. Guard Reserve and the board of directors of the South San Francis Judge Poole's family requests co Girls Club. that contributions in the judge's Boys and be directed to the donor's memory He is survived by his wife, Dora favorite charity. Lou Potts of Temple; his son and daughter-in-law, Warren and Georgia Potts of Windsor (Sonoma County); stepsons Glen Roe of St. Charles, Mo., Lark Edminster of Montesano, Wash., and Merle Cart er of Falls Church, Va.; five grand children; and five great-grand children. A memorial service hi Mr.