To See Life Steadily and to See It Whole:For Judge Wisdom in His Ninety-First Year

When Judge John Minor Wisdom spoke to the graduating class at the Law Commencement exercises on May 21, 1995, he began by telling the members of the class that he would "do something different" in his commencement address: "I shall talk longer than I was supposed to talk, that's not different, but I promise I shall not bore you with vapid generalities purporting to serve as guidelines for your future success in life and in law. "' Instead, he promised, he would give "a serious talk" about an important case in American history, namely, the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.2 To talk seriously about an important case might be something different for most commencement speakers, but it certainly was not something different for Judge Wisdom. Those who know Judge Wisdom undoubtedly suspect that he has been talking seriously about diverse and important matters, including the American Founding, Southern history, French literature, Shakespeare, Greek and Irish mythology,3 philosophy, American party politics,4 judicial administration, and the Napoleonic Code,5 as well as important cases, for most of his ninety-one years.6 Before proceeding with his talk, however, Judge Wisdom reminisced for a few moments about some of his family's many connections with Washington and Lee. Judge Wisdom spoke of his father, Mortimer Wisdom, who studied at Washington College during the presidency of General Lee, marched in General Lee's funeral procession, graduated with the Class of 1873, and later served as a Trustee of the University. Judge Wisdom also recalled memories of his childhood in New Orleans, particularly of those occasions when his father's college friends, many of whom had served under General Lee's command, would spend the evening sharing reminiscences about General Lee and the War in the parlor of the Wisdom house. Judge Wisdom also could have talked at length about his brothers and the lodgings they shared at The Pines during the 1920s, about his own service as a Trustee, or about his wife Bonnie's forebears who studied at Liberty Hall. But Judge Wisdom chose to focus on his father and his father's friends, and the acquaintance he gained with General Lee through the testimony of those who knew them both. The quiet of the Front Campus was striking as Judge Wisdom shared these recollections on that late spring Sunday afternoon. Having been asked by the editors of the Law Review to contribute a few words in tribute to Judge Wisdom, I take my cue from him. I will not subject my audience to "vapid generalities," but I will say a few serious words about a man who figures prominently both in the hearts and thoughts of his friends and in the history of his country. There was a time during the 1950s and 1960s when the fate of the nation seemed to rest in the hands of a few Southern judges who were responsible for enforcing the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.7 It was a time in which many people were caught up in a revolution of rising expectations and were hopeful about the possibilities of change, while those of a different mind stood intransigent in their opposition to the smallest alteration in the status quo.8 Black veterans had returned from foreign lands eager to experience the freedoms they had fought to protect.9 They joined forces with others who saw the need for fundamental change, as well as new opportunities for bringing about that change. That provoked confrontation with those for whom the Second World War had changed nothing. The Supreme Court added constitutional weight to one side of the argument when it decided the Brown case. But the Executive Branch of the national government was at first tepid in its support for the Court's decision, and Congress also was unpersuaded that change was necessary." The Supreme Court could speak in majestic generalities, but the real burden of implementation rested with the federal judges who sat in the district and circuit courts11 For many years, the end of summer was signaled by the renewal of rituals aimed at delaying any progress in the desegregation of the schools until at least the following school year. …