DOCSLIB.ORG

A Tale of Two Posners Richard A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Tale of Two Posners Richard A A Tale of Two Posners Richard A. Posner Public Intellectuals Harvard 2001 David J. Garrow udge Richard A. Posner is without has dismissively criticized as “sloppy” and doubt the dominant legal intellect of this “slapdash.”5 Jage. The good Judge Posner authors Dinah the cat is unlikely ever to seek analytically impressive opinions for the United retribution for her depiction in the pages of States Court of Appeals for the Seventh The New Yorker, but scores if not hundreds of Circuit1 and oftentimes writes thoughtful and self-imagined “public intellectuals” will now erudite books.2 But, alas, the good Judge have an easy time making fun of Posner’s Posner is not the only Posner, for the bad Judge embarrassingly bad eÖort at providing a send- Posner not only has the audacity to tell a up of their egotistically unworthy endeavors.6 portraitist for a national magazine that he, like Reviewer after reviewer has weighed in on his beloved cat, Dinah, has “a streak of what a methodological hash Posner has made cruelty,”3 but now he has gone and published a of his subject while attempting to assemble a volume entitled Public Intellectuals: A Study of group portrait of those who merit inclusion in Decline,4 which the New York Times Book Review what might be viewed as potentially august David J. Garrow is the Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory University School of Law and the author of Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade (rev. ed. 1998) and Bearing the Cross (1986), a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1 See, e.g., Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Doyle, 162 F.3d 463 (ca7 1998), and Hope Clinic v. Ryan, 195 F.3d 857, 876 (ca7 1999) (Posner, J., dissenting). 2 See, e.g., Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). 3 Larissa MacFarquhar, “The Bench Burner,” The New Yorker, 10 December 2001, 78, 79. 4 Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. 5 David Brooks, “Notes From A Hanging Judge,” New York Times Book Review, 13 January 2002, 9. 6 As Posner notes, the origins of the term lie in Russell Jacoby’s 1987 book, The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe. 337 David J. Garrow company. Many critics have rightfully com- particular game quite fast. Yet Posner’s sloppi- plained about the remarkable arbitrariness ness – and that of his presumed editors – with which some particular individuals have should not be quickly dismissed. On page been included or excluded from Posner’s long twenty-nine of Public Intellectuals one may be but variegated lists of “PIs.” surprised to see Posner characterize the late Easy laughs come at the expense both of Irving Howe, who for many years taught as a some of those he mistakenly included – professor of English at the City University of right-wing television talking head Ann New York Graduate Center, as a “nonaca- Coulter is an “intellectual”?7 – as well as of demic” “PI”. But Posner corrects his error – or some whom he inexplicably overlooked – at least confuses his reader – very swiftly how about Michael Eric Dyson, for indeed, for on the very next page Professor example?8 Maybe Judge Posner doesn’t watch Howe is correctly described as an “academic” bet. Some detect an under-representation of PI. Did anyone proofread this book prior to left/liberals in the Posnerian intellectual publication? Apparently not, but what is universe,9 while others rightly note a vast evident here ought to raise a most serious overrepresentation of – surprise surprise – question in Posner’s mind about whether his law professors and economists.10 But Posner’s amazingly copious productivity has now capriciousness is breathtaking. He excluded reached a point of declining returns. prominent law professor and death penalty But the methodological imprecision and opponent Anthony Amsterdam on the general carelessness of Public Intellectuals also grounds that Amsterdam is an “activist,” yet quite surprisingly carries over into the very Amsterdam’s colleague Derrick Bell – who concepts that ought to form the heart of the also litigated on behalf of the naacp Legal book, had the project been carefully and Defense and Education Fund before joining critically thought out. By the time that some the professoriate and eventually migrating to readers reach chapter four – many will have New York University Law School – is fallen by the wayside long before that point – included. Go Õgure. Posner confesses to they ought to be excused for feeling completely excluding New York Times columnist Maureen befuddled when Posner instructs them that Dowd on the grounds that she is “not very “[t]he most inÔuential journalists and com- ‘intellectual’” – how right can you be? – but mentators may be getting their ideas directly fellow Times-man William SaÕre and knee- from the academic source rather than from jerk conservative George Will somehow public-intellectual translators.” Now wait just a merit inclusion. And Posner’s generousness minute. The preceding chapters are all replete toward some liberals likewise approaches if – see the names noted above – with almost con- not quite equals the Coulter Standard: stant invocations concerning the “intellectual” Sidney Blumenthal, Susan Faludi, and Jack status of journalist after journalist. And, NewÕeld? C’mon. equally worse, the apparent thesis of this book is But most readers should tire of this that the increasing dominance of academics as 7 See Carlin Romano, “Critic at Large,” The Chronicle Review, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i22/ 22b02001.htm (visited 5 February 2002). 8 See David J. Garrow, “The Man Who Was King,” New York Review of Books, 13 April 2000, 40 (reviewing Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.). 9 See Romano, note 7 supra. 10 Posner may think this is defensible. See Public Intellectuals at 173 (“we see a marked increase [over time] in the percentage of public intellectuals who are either lawyers or economists”). 338 5 Green Bag 2d 337 A Tale of Two Posners public intellectuals is largely responsible for the display their wares. Three major categories supposed qualitative “decline” that Posner dominate the horizon. First, countless print or highlights in his sub-title. So now the reader is broadcast news stories utilize brief quotations being informed that both journalists/ from ostensibly relevant PIs who presumably commentators and at least some sub-set of bring at least some special knowledge to the academia are categorically distinct from PIs. subject at hand. These media-selected voices The impression that the good judge has not are contacted by reporters or producers who done his most basic homework with maximum are seeking either to fulÕll the professional care, and that this book has to a considerable requirement that every story has at least two degree been collated or compiled out of previ- sides or the widespread desire to Õnd some ously published articles, rather than carefully “independent” voice who happens to articulate honed, is unfortunately quite unavoidable.11 precisely the journalist’s own point of view. In The demerits of Public Intellectuals are thus the Õrst instance, a PI has to be a partisan; in extremely considerable, especially in execution the second, a PI has to be a voice of insight, as well as in formulation, but Judge Posner’s nuance, or cynicism. initial instinct or idea for the book – and Second, broadcast media, especially the instinct is indeed likely the better word – was seemingly ever-expanding universe of cable not by any means erroneous or poorly targeted. television news shows, require “talking heads” Posner’s instinctive hostility is focused upon to take up air time. “Talk radio” “phoners” what he views quite correctly as the utter pioneered this use of publicity-hungry PIs long unresponsiveness of the “market” for public before cnn, Fox, and the multiplicity of intellectuals to inept or indeed consistently networks whose initials end in “nbc” expanded erroneous job performance by widely- the demand many times over. In these venues, celebrated purveyors. Ergo Judge Posner has a the length of one’s sentences and the avoidance defensibly clear idea of what it is he doesn’t like, of multiple “ums” and “you knows” are the but even his most broad-stroke presumptions crucial performance standards. about why this state of aÖairs has come to exist Third, many newspapers and some maga- suÖer from some misconceptions that greatly zines of course publish “byline” pieces blinder his otherwise really quite inclusive authored by PIs. In the common imagination, explorations. this involves a Õerce and oftentimes futile Posner’s market-oriented worldview leads competition to appear on the “op-ed” page of him to imagine that the societal demand for the New York Times or the Washington Post. In public intellectuals is genuine rather than truth, however, far and away the most common almost wholly generated from within news way in which PIs appear in general circulation media organizations themselves. For Posner, media is as book reviewers examining the “[t]he media are conduits for the demand of newly-published work of other PIs. The mod- the general public rather than the primary est visibility and widespread distribution of demanders themselves.” He could not be more such assignments suggest their limited utility wrong. for anyone who seeks to advance her worldview, Think for a few moments about the major or even her simple name recognition, with any venues and arenas in which public intellectuals wider public. 11 In the closing Acknowledgments in Public Intellectuals, Judge Posner declares that “[m]ost of this book is new,” aside from some very considerable portions of chapters 3, 6, 7, 8 and 10.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Marching Through '64
    MARCHING THROUGH '64 David J. Garrow Wilson Quarterly Spring 1998, Volume 22, pp. 98-101. Section: Current Books PILLAR OF FIRE: America in the King Years, 1963-65. By Taylor Branch. Simon & Schuster. 746 pp. $30 Pillar of Fire is the second volume of Taylor Branch's projected threevolume history of the American black freedom struggle during the 1950s and 1960s. Ten years ago, Branch published his first volume, Parting the Waters, a richly detailed account of the civil rights movement that covered the years 1954-63 in 922 pages of text. Ending with the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's November 22 assassination, Parting the Waters was intended to be the first of two volumes that would carry the story forward until Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. But Branch changed plans, expanding his history from two volumes to three. Pillar of Fire covers the movement's history from December 1963 until February 1965 in 613 pages of text. Or, to be more precise, about 419 pages of text, for the first 194 pages are devoted to recapitulating much of the 1962-63 history that the author comprehensively treated in Parting the Waters. Should Pillar of Fire be evaluated by itself, or should it be assessed in tandem with Parting the Waters? As King often said, most "either-or" questions-this one included-are best answered with "bothand" responses. Comparing Pillar with Parting raises two questions: why devote almost one-third of Pillar to a reprise of Parting, and why allocate 400-plus pages to essentially just 1964, when all of 1954 through 1963 merited "only" 900? In the author's defense, his readers- whether or not they read Parting the Waters a decade ago-deserve some recapitulation, and 1963 and 1964 almost inarguably were the crucial years of the civil rights movement.
    [Show full text]
  • New Data Unfolds in `Who Killed JFK?'
    New Data Unfolds in `Who Killed JFK?' he obvious problem with so Of course, for those more prone T many films, movies and docu- to tune in CBS than PBS, some mentary investigations of the Ken- this will be startling. Oswald's nedy assassination coming at us mother, Marguerite, is filmed lying that son Lee wasn't found to be this week is that the valuable stuff emotionally disturbed. Rether's gets lost in the avalanche. And the claim that CBS has proceeded with problem with missing the good its own investigation since i9Ki is work is that it is only in the past supported with fascinating tests. year that a truly meaningful inves- including showing marksmen hit- tigation of the epochal crime has ting a target simulation of the been possible. moving limo. Like "Frontline's" eventful re- CBS' report shows some class 1):) port Tuesday, "Who Was Lee Har- not mentioning that its weekend- vey Oswald?," CBS' "Who Killed long, commercial-free broadcast of JFK? The Final Chapter" (at 9 Kennedy's state funeral and burial tonight on Channels 2 and 8) marked a historic turning point in benefits from new access to KGB TV news journalism and for CBS in files and authorities, recently re. particular. It will come in for leased documents and a variety of strong criticism, howevel • in offer- articulate viewpoints--dominated ing the impression that all of the by Gerald Posner, whose new book key assassination conspiracy theo- debunking all conspiracy theories ries—was it the Mafia? the CIA? "Case Closed," is all the rage.
    [Show full text]
  • Sophistic Synthesis in JFK Assassination Rhetoric. 24P
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 400 532 CS 215 483 AUTHOR Gilles, Roger TITLE Sophistic Synthesis in JFK Assassination Rhetoric. PUB DATE Apr 93 NOTE 24p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (44th, San Diego, CA, April 1-3, 1993). PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142) Speeches /Conference Papers (150) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Higher Education; Historiography; Popular Culture; *Presidents of the United States; *Rhetorical Criticism; *Rhetorical Theory; *United States History IDENTIFIERS 1960s; *Assassinations; Classical Rhetoric; Garrison (Jim); *Kennedy (John F); Rhetorical Stance; Social Needs ABSTRACT The rhetoric surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy offers a unique testing ground for theories about the construction of knowledge in society. One dilemma, however, is the lack of academic theorizing about the assassination. The Kennedy assassination has been left almost exclusively in the hands of "nonhistorians," i.e., politicians, filmmakers, and novelists. Their struggle to reach consensus is an opportunity to consider recent issues in rhetorical theory, issues of knowledge and belief, argument and narrative, history and myth. In "Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured," Susan C. Jarratt uses the sophists and their focus on "nomos" to propose "an alternative analytic to the mythos/logos antithesis" characteristic of more Aristotelian forms of rhetorical analysis. Two basic features of sophistic historiography interest Jarratt: (1) the use of narrative structures along with or opposed to argumentative structures; and (2) the rhetorical focus on history to creative broad cultural meaning in the present rather than irrefutable fact,about the past. Jarratt's book lends itself to a 2-part reading of Jim Garrison's "On the Trail of the Assassins"--a rational or Aristotelian reading and a nomos-driven or myth-making reading.
    [Show full text]
  • The JFK Assassination and the Politics and Culture of Conspiracy Theory
    A Paranoid Style? : The JFK Assassination and the Politics and Culture of Conspiracy Theory Joseph Broadbent Degree of Masters of Arts by Research University of East Anglia School of American Studies January 2014 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. 2 Abstract This thesis analyses the phenomenon of conspiracy theory, using the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a case study. Doubt is the root cause of conspiracy theory, stemming from both the innate biases all humans exhibit, and a traumatic experience – in this case the assassination of JFK. This thesis argues that conspiracy theories are created and take hold because of a predisposition toward conspiracy theory, a misinterpretation of a central piece of evidence, such as the Zapruder film, and agency panic, where dispossession causes one to feel as if their agency is under threat. Conspiracy theory can provide believers with many emotions which appear to the individual to not be available elsewhere, namely closure, comfort, control, and a sense of leisure. Using the assassination of JFK, this thesis examines the role of conspiracy theory in modern American society. It weighs up the benefits of conspiracy theory, such as it is an example of free speech and it can aid transparency, with the negatives: that it can possibly cause harm to its adherents and their dependants because of a belief in ends justifying the means.
    [Show full text]
  • A Summary of the Contributions of Four Key African American Female Figures of the Civil Rights Movement
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 12-1994 A Summary of the Contributions of Four Key African American Female Figures of the Civil Rights Movement Michelle Margaret Viera Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Viera, Michelle Margaret, "A Summary of the Contributions of Four Key African American Female Figures of the Civil Rights Movement" (1994). Master's Theses. 3834. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3834 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SUMMARY OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOUR KEY AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE FIGURES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Michelle Margaret Viera A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of History Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan December 1994 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My appreciation is extended to several special people; without their support this thesis could not have become a reality. First, I am most grateful to Dr. Henry Davis, chair of my thesis committee, for his encouragement and sus­ tained interest in my scholarship. Second, I would like to thank the other members of the committee, Dr. Benjamin Wilson and Dr. Bruce Haight, profes­ sors at Western Michigan University. I am deeply indebted to Alice Lamar, who spent tireless hours editing and re-typing to ensure this project was completed.
    [Show full text]
  • Aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, 1946-1968: Lawyers, Law, and Legal and Social Change (CRM)
    Aspects of The Civil Rights Movement, 1946-1968: Lawyers, Law, and Legal and Social Change (CRM) Syllabus Spring 2012 (N867 32187) Professor Florence Wagman Roisman Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Office Hours: Tuesdays and Wednesday – 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. Room 385 Roy Wilkins of the NAACP “reminded King that he owed his early fame to the NAACP lawsuit that had settled the Montgomery bus boycott, and he still taunted King for being young, naïve, and ineffectual, saying that King’s methods had not integrated a single classroom in Albany or Birmingham. ‘In fact, Martin, if you have desegregated anything by your efforts, kindly enlighten me.’ ‘Well,’ King replied, ‘I guess about the only thing I’ve desegregated so far is a few human hearts.’ King smiled too, and Wilkins nodded in a tribute to the nimble, Socratic reply. ‘Yes, I’m sure you have done that, and that’s important. So, keep on doing it. I’m sure it will help the cause in the long run.’” Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 (Simon and Schuster 1988), p. 849. Welcome to this course in the Civil Rights Movement (CRM). I adore this course, as has almost every student who’s taken it when I’ve taught it before. I have four goals for the course: to increase and make more sophisticated our understanding of what actually happened during the CRM, to consider the various roles played by lawyers and the law in promoting (and hindering) significant social change, to see what lessons the era of the CRM suggests for apparently similar problems we face today, and to promote consideration of ways in which each of us can contribute to humane social change.
    [Show full text]
  • 1/ 6 --12/ 2A3 M O B T O W N BEAT and a Teenage Oswald Together at A
    which drew heavily from Posner's work), and Texas School Book Depository. Previously, Case Closing? their conclusion, as Newsweek declared confi- only a palm print on the barrel of the rifle was dently, was that 'the Warren Commission was identified positively as Oswald's; conspiracy probably right.' In other words--go home, thinkers maintained that Dallas police could As Media Rush to Final folks, there's nothing to see here. have planted the print. Faint fingerprints on The eagerness to line up behind case closers the rifle's trigger guard could not be seen dear- Judgment on JFK such as Posner may be in part a backlash to the ly enough to use for identification purposes, Assassinologists Brace conspiracy frenzy that followed the release of until a former Dallas police officer named .* Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK But there seems Rusty Livingstone recently remembered that he Last Stand to be a very real need in the media to use the had a set of original photographs of the trigger- 30th anniversary to put the story to rest once guard prints in his closet—they'd been there In the midst of all the television hoopla sur- and for all. An air of finality pervaded all the for 30 years. rounding the 30th anniversary of the JFK assas- TV movies and special reports that littered the Vincent Scalice, former head of the New sination last week, the PBS series Frontline network schedules last week. York City Police Department's latent finger- aired an exhaustive three-hour documentary (9 Even Gerald Posner himself is a little sur- print unit, reexamined the photos (in 1978, p.m., November 16) dissecting the life and prised by all the attention he's getting.
    [Show full text]
  • The Inventory of the Gerald Posner Collection #1684
    The Inventory of the Gerald Posner Collection #1684 Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Posner, Gerald #1684 3/29/05 Preliminary Listing I. Research Materials. Box 1 A. Re: HITLER=S CHILDREN: SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF LEADERS OF THE THIRD REICH TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR FATHERS; files may include printed material, manuscripts, photographs, notes, proofs, interview transcripts. 1. AAssorted Kids,@ includes printed material and manuscript notes. [F. 1] 2. ADagmar Complaint.@ 3. ADanitz.@ 4. ADrexel.@ 5. AGeneral.@ [F. 2] 6. AGoring.@ 7. ALarry=s Draft.@ 8. ANazi Letters Received.@ [F. 3] 9. ANazi Letters Sent.@ 10. ANiklas Frank.@ [F. 4] 11. APhotos.@ 12. ARolf Mengele.@ 13. ASaur.@ 14. ASaur@ (continued). [F. 5] 15. ASchacht.@ 16. AScheer.@ 17. AStauffenberg.@ 18. ATax Forms.@ 19. ATranslators.@ [F. 6] 20. AWolf.@ 21. AWolf Hen.@ 22. Untitled, re: Random House and Nazis; includes photographs. [F. 7] 23. Untitled, re: corrections for manuscript. [F. 8] 24. Untitled, re: photographs. [F. 9, E. 1] 25. Transcript of interview with unidentified Nazi prisoner. [F. 10] 26. Photocopies of personal records of Karl Haushofer, and Albrecht Haushofer; includes letter to GP, 7/12/90. 27. Miscellaneous articles re: Nazis. B. Re: KILLING THE DREAM: JAMES EARL RAY AND THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.; files may include printed material, correspondence, photographs, interview Posner, Gerald (3/29/05) transcripts.[Note: JER = James Earl Ray; MPD = Memphis Police Department; NYT = New York Times] Box 2 1. AAcknowledgments.@ [F. 1] 2. AAds.@ 3. AAG Report Post-Pub. News,@ includes sub-file: AAG Report.@ 4. AAG Talk With Huie.@ 5. AAliases,@ includes sub-files: a.
    [Show full text]
  • Gerald Posner Explores the Enduring Riddle of Jfk's
    SEPTEMBER 5, 1 9 9 3 S. F. c#( CASE CLOSED Lee Harvey Oswald and The Assassination of .1F.K By Clerairi Posner GERALD POSNER Random House; 607 pages: $25 EXPLORES THE REVIEWED BY PATRICIA MOLT [ti his exhaustiKve accdount.of the John ENDURING RIDDLE ;Fitzgerald OF JFK'S DEATH -,---_ appears at first to be an honest and painstaking effort to sort through moun- tains of material and establish, once and for all, who shot JFK and why. That Gerald Posner, the critically praised author of "Mengele" and "Warlords of Crime," conciudes that the Warren Commission, for all its mistakes, was right — Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK and acted as a. "lone assassin" — may sound absurd in the face of questions raised by other honest and painstaking ac- counts. That Posner's very title, "Case Closed," arrogantly dismisses every other work on the subject may fur- ther alienate some readers. But in his 600-plus pages of investigation, including new interviews and studies involving computer enhancements, sonic digitizers and neutron activation, Posner does at times present a convincing argument. But then, they all do. The problem for readers is which authors to believe about which details. For ex- ample, one of the earliest critics of the Warren Com- mission, Bolinas private detective Josiah Thompson, wrote In "Six Seconds in Dallas" that 52 percent of the See Page 10 rifle experts shooting Mannlicher Carcanos like the one But they don't explain why the driver of the limousine JFK Oswald allegedly used have demonstrated that after Os- slowed the JFK/Connally
    [Show full text]
  • Pu Rsuitof Re Cordsand in Form At
    CHAPTER 7 PU R S U I T O F RE C O R D S A N D I N F O R M AT I O N F R O M NO N- FE D E R A L S O U R C E S I firmly believe that the Board has an obligation to seek out assassination records from all sources; public and private. The goal of Congress in passing S. 3006 was to ensure broadest possible disclosure of the records relating to the assassination. The fact that a document exists only in private hands should not deter the Board in any way from seeking to compel its transmission to the National Archives.—Judge Tunheim at the Review Board nomination hearings. Through fair and impartial application of the criteria developed by the Review Board and keeping in mind always the express purposes of the enabling legis- lation, I believe that the Review Board should be as aggressive as it needs to be to achieve disclosure of relevant records. That also applies to records held by private citizens...—William Joyce at the Review Board nomination hearings. A. PURSUIT OF RECORDS AND PAPERS FROM A P news reports of President Kennedy’s PRIVATE CITIZENS AND ORGANIZATIONS assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald’s arrest, Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, The Review Board actively encouraged pri- and President Kennedy’s funeral. Barnes, a vate citizens and organizations who pos- San Francisco-based A P reporter in 1963, sessed assassination records to donate them obtained permission from his editor to keep to the JFK Collection to make the collection the wire copy, which would otherwise have as historically rich as possible.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 REMEMBERING MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. David Levering Lewis
    1 REMEMBERING MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. David Levering Lewis NYU Washington 1307 L Street, NW Sunday, 5 PM January 20, 2013 Fifty years ago next August, two hundred fifty thousand Americans gathered in this city to protest racial discrimination as un-American. Martin Luther King, Jr., 34, leader of the successful Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), engaged in a bitter campaign to desegregate police chief Bull Connor’s Birmingham, Alabama, spoke last. His speech was one for the ages, an oration whose eloquent content matched the Gettysburg Address. Unlike Abraham Lincoln’s address, carefully prepared well in advance of his trip to a battlefield dedication, Martin Luther King’s speech was a masterpiece of eleventh-hour composition and inspired improvisation. He tells us that he only finished it at 4 AM on the morning of the 28th. The famous speech commenced with a Lincolnesque flourish: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” As his fine baritone rolled over the great crowd, “the audience response was wonderful,” Dr. King recalls. “All of a sudden, this thing came to me.” “I have a dream,” the phrase that he had used many times before. At that point, “I just turned aside from the manuscript altogether and didn’t come back to it., ”he says.[Auto-223] The powerful cadences, 2 the edifying biblical allusions, the hypnotic iteration of the leitmotif---“I Have A Dream”---would spellbind the nation. “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • David J. Garrow, “The Intel Chiefs Did to Trump What Hoover Did to MLK,” Washington Post, 18 January 2017
    David J. Garrow, “The Intel Chiefs Did to Trump What Hoover Did to MLK,” Washington Post, 18 January 2017. Once he’s inaugurated, the new president should dismiss them all. U.S. intelligence chiefs James R. Clapper Jr., John Brennan, James B. Comey and Adm. Michael Rogers (with an assist from BuzzFeed) all deserve an award: the J. Edgar Hoover memorial award, if you will. By giving official cognizance to, and personally presenting President-elect Donald Trump with the salacious fruits of sleuth-for-hire Christopher Steele’s anonymously sourced and poorly written opposition research memos intended to smear Trump’s character, the United States’ intelligence officials have reprised what then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and deputies William Sullivan and Cartha “Deke” DeLoach did to Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson should have fired Hoover and his minions for their opprobrious conduct. Clapper and Brennan are already on their way out, but Comey’s and Rogers’s resignations should be the first things Trump requests after taking the oath of office. To anyone who knows memo-by-memo the documentary record of both the FBI and the CIA’s pursuit of King, Steele’s 35-page dossier of memos dating from June 20 through Dec. 13 of last year is replete with echoes. Steele begins his assault on Trump with an anonymous accusation of “perverted sexual acts,” and his insistent obsession with “sexual perversion” mirror the characterizations Hoover and Sullivan flung at their subordinates in marshaling the FBI’s workforce to seek King’s personal destruction, repeatedly using phrases like “moral degenerate” in internal bureau communications about King.
    [Show full text]