Unlikely Heroes: The Southern Judges Who Made Brown Work

By Jack Bass

Book Overview

"I think there has been no more heroic episode in American law than the work of southern federal judges in ending racial discrimination in the South. Jack Bass has brought this recent history to life, telling us much that we had not known." --Anthony Lewis, New York Times
Unlikely Heroes is a gripping and readable account of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the watershed 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended racially segregated schools. The "unlikely heroes" whose lives and decisions that Jack Bass traces are the federal judges--primarily on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals--who vigorously and skillfully implemented the Brown decision in six southern states. These rich profiles show the character of the men who gave up prosperous lives, popularity, and friends to see that the constitutional rights of all U.S. citizens were protected.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817304916
• ISBN13: 9780817304911
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Incredible Book

Through Unlikely Heroes, as well as Taming the Storm, his biography of Alabama federal Judge Frank Johnson, Bass brings to public light the role played by southern judges in the civil rights movement. This book truly does justice to Judges Wisdom, Rives, Tuttle, and Brown for their immense contributions to the civil rights movement. This is a great book!

A brilliant history of turbulent times.

Jack Bass has written an outstanding history of an often unacknowledged but essential component of the civil rights movement. This book is the story of a group of southern judges appointed to the Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over the deep South during the 1950's and early '60's. While the Supreme Court, led by Chief Earl Warren appropriately got the headlines for their groundbreaking decision in Brown vs Board of Education, the task fell to this Court to wrestle with the meaning of "deliberate speed" and more importantly (and also more of a challenge) to actually implement this decision in their home states.The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of this time period was the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in the history of American jurisprudence. Their story is testimony to their courage, often in the face of social ostracism, threats of physical violence and all manner of disrespect.The subjects of this work, Judges Richard Rives, John Brown, John Wisdom and Elbert Tuttle are among the most courageous men ever to don the robes and swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution. They were true to the oath they took, and in living up to that affirmation, brought the South, kicking and screaming into the 20th century. A wonderfully researched work, easily readable for lawyers and normal people. Essential to the complete understanding of the times and the efforts undertaken by those who sought to change them.