sign in sign up
<<
Home , Eugenics, Jim Crow laws, Philip Perlman

University of Francis King Carey School of Law DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law

Faculty Scholarship Francis King Carey School of Law Faculty

11-2016

Eugenics, , and 's Best

Garrett Power University of Maryland School of Law, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs

Part of the Law and Race Commons, and the Legal History Commons

Digital Commons Citation Power, Garrett, ", Jim Crow, and Baltimore's Best" (2016). Faculty Scholarship. 1572. https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/1572

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Francis King Carey School of Law Faculty at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume XLIX • Number 6 November/December 2016

Maryland Legal History

November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 1 2 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 Volume XLIX • Number 6 November/December 2016

16

34 4 46

Published bimonthly by the Maryland State Bar Association, Inc. The Maryland Bar Center “Maryland Legal History” 520 W. Fayette St. Baltimore, Maryland 21201 Telephone: (410) 685-7878 (800) 492-1964 Website: www.msba.org Features Executive Director: Paul V. Carlin 4 Eugenics, Jim Crow & Baltimore’s Best Editor: W. Patrick Tandy Assistant to the Editor: Lisa Muscara By Garrett Power Design: Jason Quick Advertising Sales: Network Media Partners Subscriptions: MSBA members receive 16 A Look Back: University of Maryland BALSA, 1976-1979 THE MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL as $20 of their dues payment goes to By Harry S. Johnson publication. Others, $42 per year. POSTMASTER: Send address change to THE MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 22 Psychologists As Expert Witnesses: A Legal Retrospective 520 W. Fayette St. Baltimore, MD 21201 By Kenneth A. Vogel

The Maryland Bar Journal welcomes articles on topics of interest to Maryland 28 People’s Progress: Looking Backward and Forward attorneys. All manuscripts must be original work, submitted for approval by the After 20 Years Special Committee on Editorial Advisory, and must conform to the Journal style By Dave Pantzer guidelines, which are available from the MSBA headquarters. The Special 34 Integration in a Post-Brown World: A Conversation with Committee reserves the right to reject any manuscript submitted for publication. Judge Marcella Holland Advertising: Advertising rates will be furnished upon request. All advertising By Jennifer L. Kent and Christy A. Fisher is subject to approval by the Editorial Advisory Board. 40 A History of Divorce in Maryland: Where It Started Editorial Advisory Board and Where It Should Go Courtney A. Blair, Chair James B. Astrachan By Benjamin Schenker Alexa E. Bertinelli Cameron A. Brown Susan K. Francis 46 What You “Say” on Social Media May Have Consequences Peter A. Heinlein Hon. Marcella A. Holland (ret.) By Alvin I. Frederick and Erin A. Risch Louise A. Lock Victoria H. Pepper Gwendolyn S. Tate

MSBA Officers (2016-2017) President: Hon. Harry C. Storm Departments President-Elect: Sara H. Arthur 52 Ethics Docket 2016-13 By the Ethics Committee Secretary: Hon. Keith R. Truffer Treasurer: Hon. Mark F. Scurti Whether a lawyer can pay a fee to an online legal directory for increased

Statements or opinions expressed herein are visibility throughout the website, including on other lawyers’ profile pages? those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Maryland State Bar 54 Attorney Grievance Commission By Glenn M. Grossman Association, its officers, Board of Governors, the Editorial Board or staff. Publishing an The Health of the Profession advertisement does not imply endorsement of any product or service offered.

November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 3 eugenics, jim crow & baltimore’s best By Garrett Power

introduction During the first half of the twentieth century, denied , housing, education, and justice to black Baltimoreans. These laws were conceived and implemented by Baltimore’s leading attorneys. Why did the “Best of the Bar” choose to be the active agents of and ? Perhaps history has an answer.

4 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 5 Biological Science as examples. Marbury was just one of humankind.” Simply put, the During the second half of the nine- generation removed from his impov- Progressives advocated: teenth century biological science erished family’s slaveholding planta- 1. White supremacy; found itself at the start of a “paradigm tion in southern Maryland when he 2. Racial segregation; and shift.” ’s 1859 theo- arrived in Baltimore in the 1870s. 3. . ry of was challenging the He was admitted to the newly cre- old belief of “creationism.” Darwin’s ated , but In Richard T. Ely’s words, gover- notion of “” hypoth- a shortage of funds forced him to nance by white men was imperative esized that the best adapted members drop out and go to work while taking because “…negroes [were] grownup chil- of any biological species had the great- evening classes at the University of dren and should be treated as such.” A est chance to survive and to reproduce Maryland School of Law. W. Cabell racial quarantine was thought neces- themselves. Bruce (1860-1946), a patrician gradu- sary to protect from the In 1869, had applied ate of the University of , was contagion and the violence endemic Darwin’s “” to his classmate; Marbury and Bruce in black communities. Controls on human society. Galton’s “eugenics” shared class honors at the 1881 grad- breeding were required to prevent opined that interbreeding among the uation. T. (1856- race-mixing, and to eliminate defec- leading specimens of the Anglo Saxon 1924) arrived from Virginia in 1886 tive from the pool. white race had produced a people (where he had previously earned his Cabell Bruce, Woodrow Wilson, with superior and health, , abil- law degree) intent upon pursuing a and William Marbury became ity, and manliness. J.H.U. doctorate. dedicated Progressives who were destined to have long and distin- guished public careers. Woodrow After the War Between Wilson would become President of the States The Johns Hopkins University had Princeton University and, eventu- U.S. constitutional law was also in been founded in Baltimore in 1876 ally, President of the . the midst of change. After the “War as the nation’s first research insti- Cabell Bruce would represent the between the States” (1861-1865), tution. It stood at the center of the State of Maryland in the United the victorious North modified the Progressive movement. Richard Ely States Senate and receive a Pulitzer Nation’s organic law. The Thirteenth (1854-1943) joined the faculty in 1881 Prize for a biography of Benjamin Amendment abolished ; the as a professor of Political Economy. Franklin. William Marbury became Fourteenth Amendment bestowed Schooled in the German tradition, one of the nation’s leading lawyers citizenship on all persons born in the Ely championed government con- and, in the words of H.L. Mencken, United States and guaranteed to them trol over all aspects of human life “one of the best citizens Maryland the “equal protection of the law, and; (business, employment, immigration, ever had.” the Fifteenth Amendment granted and families). A dedicated Episcopal Each of these men in their own “Negro suffrage.” churchman, Ely preached a “Social way advanced the Progressive segre- A mixed lot of newcomers inundat- Gospel” that would create a “heaven gationist’s agenda. Bruce published ed Baltimore. Black freemen from the on earth.” a vitriolic monograph entitled The South and immigrants from Ireland, Ely founded the Baltimore-based Negro Problem (1890) wherein he Italy, Poland, and Russia overwhelmed American Economics Association warned of the prospect of an “igno- the city’s capacity to provide shelter, (AEA). Both Ely and the AEA rant” black vote, and of the dangers jobs, schools, and health care. embraced Progressivism and of acceptance of “savage” Negroes Displaced men from the southern Galton’s new science of eugenics. into the white midst. Wilson, when gentry also came to town seeking edu- Eugenics explained all differences in President of Princeton, rejected all cation and professional opportunity. human , character, and black applicants, and when President William L. Marbury (1858-1935), temperament as matters of hered- of the United States, re-segregated W. Cabell Bruce (1860-1946), and T. ity. Eugenic measures were touted the federal civil service. Marbury Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) stand the way to “advance the progress spent the remainder of his profes-

6 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 All Family Law Matters • Litigation • Appeals • Mediation Collaborative Law • Neutral Case Evaluation We Solve Problems. With over 30 years’ experience we provide a broad depth of knowledge in all family law matters. In our centrally located office in Greenspring Valley, we advocate for you with efficiency and a real “get it done” attitude.

Rated

Multiple Years!

The Law Offices of Julie Ellen Landau landaulaw.com 1925 Old Valley Road • Suite 2 • Stevenson, MD 21153 P.O. Box 219 • 410.625.1100 • FX410.625.2174 November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 7 sional life in active opposition to elected a Republican Governor and a to pass. The Poe Amendment was the integration of African- Republican Mayor. Democratic Party then defeated by the voters at ref- into full citizenship and participa- Boss Gorman bewailed the electoral erendum. Although registered as tion in Baltimore life. power of this minority which was Democrats, foreign-born citizens “altogether unfit for the management joined long-time Republicans and of the affairs of any community.” blacks in voting against the amend- Turn of the Century ment. They feared that the “under- Opposition to “race mixture” and standing test” might be administered support for racial segregation gained Jim Crow so as to deny them the vote as well. immediate and widespread accep- At the start of the twentieth century, In 1907, Isaac Lobe Straus (1871- tance. In 1884, the Maryland General Jim Crow laws became the centerpiece 1946), as Maryland’s newly elected Assembly made it a crime for “white of reforms. Eugenic Democratic Attorney General, cre- persons and persons of negro descent” science provided white leaders a righ- ated a “brain-trust” of prominent to marry. In 1890, the University of teous justification to use the rule of Maryland lawyers, including William Maryland School of Law summar- law to impose a system upon L. Marbury, to draft an improved dis- ily expelled the two black students Maryland and Baltimore. The Grand enfranchising plan. in attendance and good standing Poo-Bahs of the superior white race When the Straus Amendment was because it was thought it “unwise to undertook to disempower and to seg- submitted to the voters in a state- … allow students to attend regate the inferior colored races. wide referendum it encountered a ... in the face of manifest opposi- formidable adversary in the per- tion.” And in 1896, the United States son of Charles Joseph Bonaparte Supreme Court approved segregation Black Voting Rights (1851-1921), Maryland’s leading laws so long as the blacks and whites William L. Marbury and other devot- Republican. Bonaparte had served were treated equally. ed eugenicists thought the progeny of as President Theodore Roosevelt’s White political hegemony, however, slaves unfit for citizenship, and object- Attorney General. Motivated both had been cast in doubt by the Fifteenth ed to any “participation of the colored by a regard for Negro rights, as well Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. man in government.” A first order of as party politics, he led a campaign Enacted in 1870, it had enfranchised business became circumvention of the that defeated the Amendment with black males of voting age, virtually Fifteenth Amendment’s guarantee of a coalition of Republicans, white and all of whom joined the newly created black suffrage. black, and still-suspicious foreign- Republican Party. If the black vote Democratic Party Boss Arthur born citizens. tipped the balance in favor of the elec- Gorman looked to John Prentiss Poe Politics having failed, “super-law- tion of Republicans, Negroes would (1836-1909), the Party’s “consigliere,” yer” Marbury looked to the judicial have a “seat at the table.” for assistance. Poe had served as a process. In 1915, he argued before the Initially, there was no prob- Dean of the University of Maryland U.S. Supreme Court that the Fifteenth lem. In the aftermath of the Civil School of Law since 1871, and his Amendment itself had unconstitution- War, Maryland had remained a segregationist predilections were well ally invaded state sovereignty and Democratic state and Baltimore a established. In 1890, he had expelled therefore had no force and effect, and Democratic city. U.S. Senator Arthur Negro student Ashbie Hawkins from that the states were therefore free to Pue Gorman (1839-1906), the boss of the law school when white classmates discriminate in their electorate as they the dominant Democratic machine, objected to his presence. saw fit. The Supreme Court rejected proudly boasted, “This government Poe drafted a Maryland his argument. was made by white men and shall Constitution amendment that was Maryland’s Democratic regulars be ruled by white men so long as the designed to curtail the Negro vote. would have to rely on white “pug- republic lasts.” It contained a “,” uglies” at the polling places, not the But then in 1896 it happened. The which would be impossible for blacks rule of law, when it came to suppress- Republican Party, its ranks swelled to meet, and an “understanding test” ing the black vote and retaining exclu- by black voters, carried the day and which would be impossible for blacks sive white power.

8 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 a new leader is EMERGING

Acclaimed personal injury attorneys Deborah L. Potter, Suzanne V. Burnett, and Andrew T. Burnett are proud to announce the formation of Potter Burnett Law. Their new legal firm understands the importance of standing by your side and confidently representing injured individuals throughout the state of Maryland and Washington, DC.

Contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation. As always, you will pay no attorney fees unless we win.

let our pride protect yours. PotterBurnettLaw.com

Suzanne V. Burnett

Andrew T. Burnett

CALL FOR A FREE CONSULTATION: Deborah L. Potter 301.850.7000 16701 Melford Blvd • Suite 321 • Bowie, MD 20715

Car Accidents • Nursing Home Negligence • Medical NovemberMalpractice 2016 MARYLAND and Mistakes BAR JOURNAL 9 to distance black neighborhoods from prime real estate. The project set the twentieth century precedent for the use of “urban renewal” as an excuse for “Negro removal.” An informal “color-line” racially divided Baltimore’s black neighbor- hoods from its white neighborhoods. Negro dwellings were in fixed sup- ply and colored families were left in search of shelter. To preserve the existing separation it was necessary to prevent the “Negro invasion” of white neighborhoods. After his expulsion from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1890, Ashbie Hawkins had com- pleted his legal education at Howard University. He had been admitted to the Maryland Bar and returned to town to head the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP. Hawkins was intent upon open- ing Baltimore white neighborhoods to black homeowners. In 1910, he led the “Negro Invasion” when he purchased a house in William L. Marbury’s posh Racial Segregation bered for the major civic works that Mount Royal neighborhood. Progressives viewed segregation as created a downtown governmental Marbury joined with his neigh- a vital aspect of social reform. By center embracing a City Hall plaza bors to fight back. They enacted leg- separating themselves from commu- and the new Courthouse. When the islation that divided all of Baltimore nities of color, white communities Baltimore City health commissioner into white blocks and black blocks. could avoid contagion, prevent vio- warned that there was a “plague spot” Whites could not live on black lent confrontation, discourage frat- immediately to the north of the vital blocks, blacks could not live on ernization (which might degenerate city center, Mayor Preston acted. white blocks. This de jure segregation into to “race-mixing”) and protect A civil works project cleared the site seemed to satisfy the constitutional property values. and converted the area into a series requirement in that it was “separate Writing in the journal Medicine in of sunken gardens and parked spac- but equal.” 1903, Baltimore physician William es with elaborate stairways. Preston Cities throughout the south cop- Lee Howard advocated that the white Gardens was dedicated in 1919. ied Baltimore’s novel legislation. In race “in every aspect of the term [be] Truth be told, the cleared site had 1917, a Louisville version of quarantined from the African.” A first been a substantial African-American the Baltimore Plan was surprisingly step was the elimination of black neighborhood which included a col- struck down by the United States neighborhoods located too close to ored school, several black churches, Supreme Court – not because it failed the vital city center. and “shabby” 1820s townhouses. to “equally protect” black buyers, but James Harry Preston (1860–1938) There was no real threat of contagion, because it deprived white sellers of served as Baltimore Mayor from 1911- and the community was by no mea- their “property rights.” Baltimore’s 1919. His administration is remem- sure a slum. Slum clearance served leaders reluctantly accepted the high

10 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 court’s ruling and Ashbie Hawkins prospect of “race suicide” by encour- them to find ways to use eugenic sci- seemed to have begun the process of aging those of the superior northern ence to make a better world. Their sci- opening the housing market. European stock to inter-marry and entists proposed surgical campaigns Baltimore’s legal leaders, however, to maintain a higher birth rate than designed to purify the population of found other ways to maintain the Negroes, Hispanics, Hebrews, Asiatic, the United States and to improve the city’s . In 1923, Philip Slavs, and Italians. genetic pool. laws adopt- B. Perlman (1890-1960), the Baltimore By the start of the twentieth century, ed in over 30 states undertook to elim- City Solicitor, conspired with represen- the prospect of a “negative eugen- inate the genetically “unfit” through tatives from the Real Estate Board, the ics” had received scientific recogni- programs of sterilization. City Building Office, the City Health tion. Since poverty, crime, and illness Maryland never passed an invol- Department, and white neighborhood all arose from defective genes, zeal- untary sterilization law. Any evidence associations to employ restrictive cov- ous advocates called for a policy of of extra-legal neutering or euthana- enants, , jaw-boning, and , eliminating sia is lost or destroyed. Many credit peer pressure to discourage sales or inferior genetic stock, and thereby the opposition of the Archdiocese of rentals to Negroes in white neighbor- improving all of humankind. Richard Baltimore for discouragement of these hoods. De facto residential segregation T. Ely summed it up when he said, procedures. The ada- continued unabated. “Certain human beings … are absolutely mantly opposed all measures to limit unfit and … should be prevented from the reproduction. continuation of their kind.” Between 1907 and 1960, more than Selective Breeding The Carnegie Institution and 60,000 “defectives” were sterilized. Francis Galton’s original scientific the pro- Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell theory had been that of a “positive vided grant funds to Stanford, Yale, Holmes Jr. gave his constitutional eugenics.” He sought to avoid the Harvard, and Princeton and charged approval when he held that “three

Every George Counts with the ABA Retirement Funds Program.

Contact an ABA Retirement When saving for retirement every George Funds Program Regional counts. As a not-for-profit corporation, the ABA Retirement Representative today. Funds Program features no out-of-pocket firm expenses and 866.812.1510 low institutionally-priced funds for participants. Learn how the ABA Retirement www.abaretirement.com Funds Program can help you reduce plan costs so that every George can count [email protected] towards your retirement. All ABA Retirement Funds Program fees are allocated to each investment option (excluding brokerage accounts) and are reflected in each Fund’s expense ratio. These fees are the only costs charged to participants (or employers) for participating in the Program. There are no additional costs to the employer or out-of-pocket expenses for participants. Clients may incur additional expenses through the use of outside service providers, such as a TPA, or CPA to support their plan design or responsibilities as a plan sponsor. Participants may incur costs by opting for certain advisory services or by utilizing the self-directed brokerage account option. The ABA Retirement Funds Program is available through The Maryland State Bar Association as a member benefit. Please read the Program Annual Disclosure Document (April 2016) carefully before investing. This Disclosure Document contains important information about the Program and investment options. For email inquiries, contact us at: [email protected]. Securities offered through Voya Financial Partners, LLC (Member SIPC). Voya Financial Partners is a member of the Voya family of companies (“Voya”). Voya and the ABA Retirement Funds are separate, unaffiliated entities, and not responsible for one another’s products and services. CN1029-19104-1117 - 2015

November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 11 generations of imbeciles are enough.” “” education of an “equal” quality. Predictably, African-American women Reconsidered In 1936, left were special targets. When William L. Marbury died in Baltimore to become the General William L. Marbury supported 1935 his son William L. Marbury Jr. Counsel for the NAACP in New measures “to look after the health, (1902-1988), a Harvard law gradu- York. Thereafter he would lead a mental and physical, of the members ate, took over the law practice. The successful fight to dismantle the of the race.” Marbury was “anxious constitution required that black folks “separate but equal” doctrine. In that a hospital for the care of the and white folks receive “equal pro- a series of test cases, courts would colored insane be established.” And tection of the law.” In two cases from be persuaded that segregated pub- in 1910, he convinced the Maryland the 1930s, young Marbury found lic programs failed to qualify as General Assembly to establish “an himself charged with the task of being “equal” because of tangible institution for the detention and care finding constitutional loopholes that and intangible differences. Jim Crow of the negro insane.” justified the practices of his father’s was an endangered species. Marbury’s motivation may have segregationist clients. been in part noblesse oblige and in In Meade v. Dennistone, Marbury Jr. part eugenic. In 1914, the Carnegie successfully defended white neigh- Eugenics Discredited Institute had issued a report “on the bors who kept Negroes out of their In the 1930s, Germany’s National Best Practical Means for Cutting Off neighborhood by private agreement, Socialist party embraced the the Defective Germ-Plasm in the on the grounds that the exclusion American Eugenics Movement. The American Population.” One of the was the result of a private (not a Nazis’ crusade to create an measures proposed called for institu- public) action. The case put a con- “” featured a steriliza- tionalization of “defective persons” so stitutional stamp of approval on the tion program that led to the neu- as to limit their child-bearing. private restrictive covenants that tering of over 350,000 “defective” Marbury served as president of had been the centerpiece of Philip persons, including the feeblemind- the Hospital for the Negro Insane of Perlman’s de facto plan for segrega- ed, epileptic, schizophrenic, manic- Maryland from 1910 until his death tion since the 1920s. depressive, cerebral palsy, muscular in 1935. The Board had “absolute con- In Williams v. Zimmerman, dystrophy, deaf, and blind as well trol of … the care and treatment of Marbury Jr. successfully defended as the homosexual and the insane. patients, as pertains to matters of both the Baltimore County School Board “Mercy” killings eventually took executive and medical character.” against charges that it had denied more than 300,000 lives under a Horror stories abound of indiscrimi- a black girl equal education when program. After the war, nate and involuntary institutionaliza- it denied her access to the coun- the Nazi practices were declared tion of orphans, unwed mothers and ty’s white-only high school. He a crime against humanity – acts of imbeciles, paupers, epileptics, inebri- proved that she might have attended . ates, and lunatics. Baltimore City’s colored high school left eugenics dis- The records of the care and medi- if she had not failed an entrance credited as a pseudo-science. It is cal treatment provided during exam. Denial of equal opportunity no longer discussed in reputable Marbury’s years were destroyed in a was found to be based upon her aca- scientific journals and foundation- basement flood, making it impossible demic failure, not her race. funded research grants had disap- to confirm or deny these anecdotal The losing advocate in Williams peared. The mainstream scientific reports. William L. Marbury counted had been Thurgood Marshall, study of and human differ- his 25 years of volunteer service to Baltimore’s rising NAACP lawyer. ences rejected any notion of “white the Hospital for the Negro Insane Just two years before, Marshall had supremacy.” The twenty-first centu- as a proof of the adage that “the gained black applicant Donald G. ry sequencing of the human Southern White man is the Negro’s Murray admission to the University removed all residual doubt of racial truest friend.” of Maryland School of Law by prov- supremacy. ing that the state failed to elsewhere provide him with a “separate” legal

12 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016 “EDUCATING THE MIND WITHOUT EDUCATING THE HEART IS NO EDUCATION AT ALL.” –

Master of LIBERAL ARTS Broaden your horizons and develop skills that are required in a constantly changing world: > Critical thinking > Investigative inquiry > of thought and study > Self-re ection > Personal growth

Study in the nation’s  rst Master of Liberal Arts program. Offered part-time at Johns Hopkins’ Baltimore campus and online, you’ll re ect on the world’s greatest thought leaders as you dare to continue learning.

LEARN MORE > mla.jhu.edu

1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 101 | Washington, DC 20036 | 1.800.847.3330 | 202.452.1940

November 2016 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL 13 After World War II of Overseers of Harvard University. snare and delusion. The mapping of The Supreme Court’s constitutional He was one of the organizers of the human genome in the twenty- precedents condoned racial discrim- Maryland’s Legal Aid Bureau, which first century finally put to rest any ination by private parties. In 1948, offers legal services to the poor. He lingering scientific belief in genetic it changed its mind. The Court held advocated for equal funding for black supremacy of one racial or ethnic the enforcement of restrictive racial schools in the 1940s and he was a group over another. covenants in private deeds to be an peace-maker in civil rights disputes And there is a better explanation of unconstitutional denial of equal pro- of the 1950s. the persistence of racial discrimina- tection. The winning advocate was In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), tion in today’s society. Psychological leader of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Thurgood Marshall convinced the studies show that people “naturally” Fund, erstwhile Baltimore lawyer Supreme Court that the separate edu- attribute more positive traits to their Thurgood Marshall. Remarkably, he cation of white students and colored own group than to other groups. was joined by U.S. Solicitor General students was “inherently unequal.” “Tribalism” feeds the desire for eco- Philip Perlman, who 25 years before Marbury applauded the decision. For nomic and social , and as Baltimore City Solicitor had pro- this apostasy Marbury was bluntly fuels and moted private deed restriction as criticized by his southern-sympathiz- against other people. a part of the Baltimore Plan for ing brethren at the bar. A lifetime of segregation has left Segregation. Jim Crow was legally dead. De jure with a stereotyped Perlman capped his career by serv- had been ruled view of African-Americans. Indeed, ing as the “Nation’s Lawyer”. He unconstitutional. Talk and support for people of good will who consciously joined Marshall in arguing and win- eugenics has disappeared from the reject all may subliminally ning the case of Shelley v. Kramer (1948) public discourse. But alas, the de facto harbor fears of black violence and which opened white communities to relegation of African-Americans to a a dismissive attitude towards black Negro newcomers. Perlman, the one- second-class economic and social sta- competence. time segregationist was honored as a tus has not gone away. Eugenics had championed separa- “Champion of .” tion of racial groups as a means of For two decades, NAACP lawyer advancing the “condition of human- Marshall had judicially challenged Conclusions kind.” But eugenics had it backwards; the Supreme Court’s constitutional For one-half of a century a long line it was a paradigm shift in the wrong precedents which condoned the sepa- of Baltimore’s best barristers – John direction. Integration, not segrega- rate (but equal) public education of Prentiss Poe, William L. Marbury Sr., tion, seems the better route to a “just white students and black students. W. Cabell Bruce, James H. Preston, society.” In 1937, he had lost a case to William Isaac Lobe Straus, Philip B. Perlman, De jure racial discrimination has L. Marbury Jr., who had successful- and William L. Marbury Jr. – imposed been ruled unconstitutional. Talk and ly defended the constitutionality of Jim Crow laws and practices on black support for eugenics has disappeared Baltimore County’s denial of a high Baltimoreans from the “top-down.” from the public discourse. But alas school education to a colored child. The question arises as to why these the de facto relegation of African- In the ensuing years, Marbury Jr. leading townsmen self-righteously, and Americans to a second-class econom- had achieved prominence, and had without apology, economically exploit- ic and social status has not gone had a change of heart. He had escaped ed, socially segregated, and publicly away. Baltimore’s barriers of bigotry his father’s racist legacy, and gone on humiliated African-Americans. A sim- can only be broken down by regu- to pursue a distinguished professional ple answer is that Baltimore’s best had lar and close interactions between and civic life. been besotted by the eugenics. They white-folk and black-folk over the Marbury was awarded the found therein a “scientific” rational- long term. Presidential Medal for Merit for dis- ization for their privileged place in a Mr. Power is Professor Emeritus at the tinguished national service to the segregated society. University of Maryland Francis King Carey War Department during World War But the eugenics hypothesis of School of Law. II. He served 22 years on the Board white supremacy proved to be a

14 MARYLAND BAR JOURNAL November 2016