The making of a civil rights lawyer
By: Michael Meltsner.
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Charlottesville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 309
Subjects: Meltsner, Michael, 1937-; Lawyers -- United States -- Biography.; Civil rights workers -- United States -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "As a white Yale Law School graduate, Meltsner began his career with the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, working initially under Thurgood Marshall and later under Jack Greenberg. From his vantage point at LDF, Meltsner witnessed and participated in litigation support of the civil rights movement in the South. As the movement shifted north and the fight for desegregation gave way to black-power slogans, Meltsner remained involved with the LDF and later went on to teach public interest practice at Columbia Law School. He watched the move from the high expectations after the Brown v. Board of Education decision to the lows of subsequent resegregation. He recalls his involvement in other civil rights efforts, from the campaigns to abolish capital punishment to Muhammad Ali's legal battle to regain his right to box. Meltsner closes with a chapter that examines the strategic possibilities of the No Child Left Behind mandate. Meltsner brings a personal perspective to this assessment of the hopes, potential, and shifting terrain of public service law. A worthy read. --Vernon Ford Copyright 2006 Booklist."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Macon, Georgia; title: How I went to work for Thurgood Marshall; title: What they didn't teach me at the Yale Law School; title: On-the-job training; title: A sense of the work; title: A white civil rights lawyer; title: Greenberg and Bell; title: Me and Muhammad; title: The complex world of law reform; title: Litigation : means of choice or last resort?; title: Legal killing revisited; title: The future of the death penalty.