Hidden Legal Figures
Introducing Hidden Legal Figures (#1)
Why a podcast about lawyers? | October 8, 2019
Way Down South | Prelude: October 15, 2019 (#2) | Full-episode: October 15, 2019 (#3)
Throughout the 1950's and 1960's, the American south was a cauldron of conflict. The civil rights movement was in its prime and the legal efforts to protect rights were front and center. This episode of Hidden Legal Figures is adapted from our educational program that was a part of the annual meeting of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents in Atlanta, Georgia.
Brown v. Board of Education Series | Prelude: October 22, 2019 (#4) | Part 1 - Goodbye to Separate-but-Equal: October 29, 2019 (#5) | Part 2 - In Deliberate Speed: November 5, 2019 (#6)
Brown v. Board of Education is perhaps the best-known lawsuit from the civil rights era. In this two-part series, attorney and legal historian Charles S. Johnson, III explains how it started - and what it really meant - remains a mystery to this day.
Part 1, Goodbye to Separate-but-Equal, our guest breaks down the beginnings of the four cases that were a part of the Brown decision and talks about all the lawyers who were involved in that historic decision.
Part 2, In Deliberate Speed examines what happened when the cases made it to the Supreme Court and how Brown II continues to shape the landscape of higher education.
The Back of the Bus takes a Front Seat | Prelude: November 12, 2019 (#7) | Full episode: November 19, 2019 (#8)
The Montgomery Bus Boycott makes the nation come face-to-face with the rottenness of segregation and the Jim Crow south. For 380 days, black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride the city buses. But is was a decision by the federal courts that gave them ultimate victory. Fred Grey, the lead attorney in the case Browder v. Gayle reflects on the legal efforts associated with the effort that launched Martin Luther King, Jr. to national prominence.
Thanksgiving Message | November 26, 2019
Hidden Legal figures will be taking a short break this week in celebration of the Thanksgiving Holiday. But make sure you stay tuned next week for another great episode with Professor Christopher W. Schmidt of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
May I Take Your Order? | Prelude: December 3, 2019 (#9) | Full-episode: December 10, 2019 (#10)
As the Civil Rights Movement began to intensify, students all across the south staged lunch counter sit-ins. From Greensboro, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia lawyers aided them in their quest for justice. Chicago-Kent University College of Law Professor Christopher Schmidt, author of The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era captures this iconic moment from the perspective of a legal historian.
Holiday Reflections | December 17, 2019 | December 24, 2019
Our special holiday episode features the Hidden Legal Figures podcast team. During this season of reflection and renewal, we take a few moments to look back on the first half of our first season, highlighting some of our favorite moments and to share what we have planned for the future. We wanted to make this a special gift to our listeners and we hope you enjoy opening it up as much as we enjoyed wrapping it together. Happy Holidays from the Hidden Legal Figures podcast family.
Bonus Episode: A Tribute to Senator Leroy R. Johnson | January 14, 2020
In 1962, Leroy R. Johnson became the first African American elected to the Georgia State Senate since Reconstruction. Senator Johnson passed in October 2019 at the age of 92. In a special bonus episode, Hidden Legal Figures pays tribute to this grand and dynamic figure in American politics and law.
Black to School | Part 1 January 21, 2020 (#11) | Part 2: January 28, 2020 (#12)
In 1961, the fate of the nation's oldest public institution of higher learning hung in the balance. It would be up to one federal judge to rule on the question of equality in education. Mercer University Law Professor Pat Longon joins us to reflect on the life and career of Judge William Augustus Bootle and the case that desegregated the University of Georgia.
They Called Him Mr. Civil Rights | February 4, 2020 (#13) | February 11, 2020 (#14)
Donald Lee Hollowell was the one lawyer that Georgians would call on when their rights were being threatened. From his first case in 1952 all the way through his retirement in the early 90’s Hollowell’s name was synonymous with civil rights. The cases he handled are detailed by professor Maurice Daniels, author of Saving the Soul of Georgia: Donald L. Hollowell and the Struggle for Civil Rights and his enduring legacy is discussed by veteran civil rights leader, Rev. Otis Moss, Jr.
Lady Justice | March 3, 2020 (#15) | March 10, 2020 (#16) | March 17, 2020 (#17)
Constance Baker Motley was one of the most important civil rights lawyers of the twentieth century. Tapped by Thurgood Marshall early in 1945 to join the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she was involved in more than 200 cases as either lead counsel or during the appeal of a case. In 1966, she became the first African American woman to be appointed as a federal judge. Joel Motley, III, Judge Motley’s son and producer of the multi-award-winning documentary, The Trials of Constance Baker Motley joins us to pay homage to this remarkable figure.
Noah Parden Series | Prelude: March 24, 2020 (#18) | Jailhouse Rock: March 24, 2020 (#19) | A Lawyer's Appeal: April 7, 2020 (#20) | Order in the Court : April 14, 2020 (#21)
In this three-part series, Mark Curriden, author of the ABA award winning Contempt of Court: The Turn of the Century Lynching that Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism, is our special guest to discuss a case that both shook and shaped the legal profession at its core.
Part 1 - In 1906 Ed Johnson was falsely accused of rape in Tennessee. In the dizzying span of just 56 days, he was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed. Curriden recounts the incident that led to the trial and how the sheriff gave cover to a lynch mob set on vengeance.
Part 2 - Noah Parden, an African American lawyer, takes over the Ed Johnson case and appeals his conviction to the United States Supreme Court. But before Parden can make it back to Tennessee after briefing Associate Justice John Harlan, Ed Johnson is taken from the jail and lynched. Mark Curriden returns to show us just how this miscarriage of justice unfolded.
Part 3 - What happens when an order of the United States Supreme Court is defied? And what if the defying party is a law enforcement officer? In the final part of this series, Mark Curriden reveals how the Ed Johnson case led to the Supreme Court holding a sheriff in contempt and how it laid the groundwork for some of the most significant constitutional decisions affecting the rights of persons accused of crimes.
A Legal Renaissance | May 5, 2020 (#22) | May 12, 2020 (#23)
James Weldon Johnson is best known as the composer to Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing – popularly called the Negro National Anthem, but he was also a lawyer. As the first African American Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Johnson created the framework for what would become the Legal Defense and Education Fund.
For Whom the Bell Tolls | May 19, 2020 (#24) | May 26, 2020 (#25)
He was a son of the old south but emerged as a father of its new frontier. As a lawyer, judge, and United States Attorney General, Griffin Bell occupied a unique vantage point in the unfolding events that demanded legal redress. A special guest shines a light on this towering figure.
A View from the Mountaintop | Prelude: June 2, 2020 (#25) | Full episode: June 9, 2020 (#26)
On April 4, 1968, six lawyers came to the aid of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a Federal District Court in Memphis, Tennessee. W. J. Michael “Mike” Cody - one of the lawyers - joins us to share his remembrances of the untold legal efforts that were a big part of that fateful day.