The Alledger, Volume 06, Number 10 the Alledger
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Boston College Law School Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School The Alledger Law School Archive 3-24-1986 The Alledger, volume 06, number 10 The Alledger Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/alledger Part of the Legal Education Commons, and the Legal History, Theory and Process Commons Recommended Citation The Alledger, "The Alledger, volume 06, number 10" (1986). The Alledger. Book 54. http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/alledger/54 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Archive at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Alledger by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Frank Wilkinson: Professor Cottrol Defense of FreedQm on Racial Politics in Boston- Frank Wilkinson is scheduled to speak in the LSA Speaker Series By Jeanne MacLaren on Tuesday, April 15, at 12:00 p.m. in room 315. Professor Ar Professor Robert J. Cottrol thur Berney is making the ar-· presented his paper entitled rangements and will introduce "Law, Politics and Race in Urban Mr. Wilkinson. America: Towards a New Syn thesis'' at the American Society By Bill Blum for Legal History this past fall. Rutgers Law Journal will publish If eternal vigilance is the price it next fall. I was one of 3 student we pay to protect the Bill of research assistants who con Rights, the American peopfe tributed to this thought-provok must owe Frank Wilkinson a ing and highly readable article. small fortune in unpaid overtime. · Many students might appreciate Over the past twenty years, as the insights provided in Prof. the national executive director of Cottrol's study of Boston's political history. This summary the National Committee Against Property Prof. Frank Uffam, or is it Upham, leads the chf?rus of the attempts to do justice to his en Repressive Legislation BC Law -Revue as it sings "Green acres is the place to be, fee simple's (NCARL), Frank has carried the the estate for me ... " tire effort and to the curiosity defense of civil liberties to over about the roots of the racial ten sion in Boston. 45 states, appearing on hundreds a privately funded public-interest assisted in national effort a to Before, during and _just after of TV and radio programs ·and organization designed to · pro abolish HUAC. He traveled the Civil War, Massachusetts addressingmore than 1500 stu mote the construction of low-rent throughout the country to was one of a few states dent audiences and an equal integrated public housing. The organize support for those which led sub the nation in eliminating number of religious, professional, Council was headed by Mnsgr. poenaed before the committee. de jure racial discrimination. labor and community Thomas J. O'Dwyer, Ar During the course of this cam Massachusetts's organizations. chdiocesan Director of Catholic paign in 1958, the Southern Con Constitution from 1780 carries At the same time, Wilkinson Hospitals and Charities. Three ference Educational Fund invited no racial restrictions on voting. has coordinated and directed years later, he joined the Los him to Atlanta to help organize This was one of the reasons NCARL's work, planned its Angeles City Housing Authority, resistance to a proposed HUAC it passed after political strategies and drafted where he served as assistant to proceeding there. defeat by referendum of the 1778 Constitution with its all much of its widely disseminated the director and soon became a Wilkinson found himself sub white suffrage provision. literature on repressive national authority on slum poenaed to the Atlanta inquest. The constitu tional clause legislation. clearance. Among his When asked by HUAC members proclaiming all men "free and equal" Although he retired as achievements was serving as about political affiliations, both was construed 3 years later NCARL's national director in manager of the first integrated he and the late Carl Braden, by the courts as in compatible with 1980, Wilkinson continues to housing proj~ct in the Watts another civil liberties organizer, slavery. The rights of work on a volunteer basis. Dur ghetto in 1942. declined to answer on First Blacks to serve as jurors ing his 20-year tenure as a paid But Wilkinson was abruptly Amendment grounds. Both men and be elected to public of fic-e was embedded staffer, he received subsistence removed from his housing posi were cited for contempt and lost in this state's · law before wages for a work week which nor tion in 1942 when, in the course five-to-four decisions before the the 19th C. Early in mally lasted 60-100 hours and of a slum condemnation pro U.S. Supreme Court. (Wilkinson the 19th C. Boston supported 2 black found him on the road two out of ceeding, he was called before v. United States, 365 US 397; public schools. In 1855 Governor every three days. Even today, at California's "little HUAC" and Braden v. United States, 365 US Gardner signed an in tegrated the age of 67, his indefatigable asked to name alL the organiza 431.) They received one-year school bill, prohibiting discrimination energy remains a constant source tions he had belonged to since sentences, which they served in the assignment in of of astonishment among his col 1931. Refusing to answer, he was federal penitentiaries in Georgia, pupils to public schools. Just prior to leagues, both young and old. removed from his government South Carolina, Virginia and this the legislature also recognized The son of a Methodist lay job. Pennsylvania. On his way to the validity of inter racial marriages. leader, Wilkinson was born in Wilkinson's spirit, however, re prison, Wilkinson stated the civil During and after the Civil Charlevoix, Michigan. At the age mained undaunted. In 1953, he liberties credo which he has per War, when racist views of 10, his family moved to Bever became executive secretary of sonified throughout his life: were prominent in most sectors ly Hills. Upon graduation from the Los Angeles-based Citizen's "I have made the First Amend of society, again the · UCLA in 1936 Wilkinson plann Committee to Preserve American ment challenge . as a matter of Masschusetts legislature forged ahead and prohibited ed to become a minister, but Freedoms, dedicated to personal conscience and the private discrimination decided to· take · a world tour abolishing "big HUAC," the responsibility we all share to de in hotels, restaurants, before entering religious studies. House Committee on fend the Constitution against all taverns .. and in In the course of this trip he saw UnAmerican Activities. Wilkin enemies .. We will not save free surance companies. American slums for the first time son's first activity in this capaci speech if we are not prepared to Given this sample equal right and upon returning to Los ty was to organize, in February go to jail in its defense. I am legislation in MassachusE:tts, it is . difficult Angeles, abandoned his plan for 1954, a banquet to defend the prepared to pay that price." to account for any role of the religious studies and embarked National Lawyers Guild, then While Wilkinson and Carl law in the current de facto instead on a career in public under attack by HUAC arid At Braden were serving their discrimination prevalent in the housing. torney General Herbert sentences, thousands of living and working conditions of Wilkinson's political career Brownell, Jr. Americans at the urging of Mar Boston today. Hence, an expand ed took shape in 1939, when he Several years tin Luther King, Jr., Reinhold historical understanding is later, as a staff needed. became secretary of the Citizen's member of the Emergency Civil Niebuhr, Howard Schomer Housing Council of Los Angeles, Liberties CommitteP.. Willr..inson continued on page 3 continued on page 4 Page 2/ ALLEDGER I March 24-April4, 1986 OPINION/EDITORIAL 8.t.Ro""e An Inspiring Telethon Editorial By Andrew H. Sharp At 7:00pm we went on the air. The host, Tony Orlando, was By Ken Viscarello Yet, many times the turnout is I'd never been involved in a caught in traffic on Nonantum less than enthusiastic. (On a telethon before so I didn't really Road so an unprepared George A couple of weeks ago, during tangent I can relate to his know what to expect. I never im Bush went on and made a mov the break, I had the opportunity frustration when I try to solicit agined that the Law School Tele ing plea for funds. He cited to go to Suffolk Law School to articles for the Alledger.) thon would be so exciting. numerous horror stories of hear the Honorable Judge Posner After a sumpsous banquet repression and warned of a dom speak. For those of you who are I suspect some of the probJeii?-s ably served by nubile under ino-like spread of Communism. not familiar with Judge Posner, with the turnout lie in schedul grads, the student volunteers Thankfully Tony Orlando did ar he is a circuit judge and scholar ing. Many second and third years were led to a festive and ornate rive and a reluctant Mr. Bush noted for his application of do not have classes on Fridays. More Hall. Each of us was equip was escorted to a waiting car. economic theories to legal prin For example many classes, e.g. ped with a state of the art AT&T Orlando, the uncrowned king ciples. I left the speech Securities Regs and Conflicts, telephone. We even had our own of show business, had tears in his fascinated.