Anne Emanuel, professor of law emerita (from left), meets with with Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Anne Emanuel, professor of law emerita, was a featured panelist at The Federal Judicial Center’s National Symposium for the United States Court of Appeals Judges in Washington, D.C., in November.
Emanuel, along with retired Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart of the Fifth Circuit, spoke on “Legacy of Courage: The Rule of Law in the Civil Rights Era.”
The symposium, which also featured a panel with Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan, is conducted every three years and brings together court of appeals judges from across the country.
Emanuel, who wrote the only authorized biography of Elbert Parr Tuttle, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the years of the Civil Rights Movement, was invited to join the panel by Judge Stewart. Her book, Elbert Parr Tuttle: Chief Jurist of the Civil Rights Revolution (Studies in the Legal History of the South), examines Tuttle’s leadership of the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over most of the Deep South through those tumultuous years.
Tuttle became chief judge in 1960, six years after Brown v. Board of Education had been decided, and his swift, decisive rulings neutralized the delaying tactics of diehard segregationists—including voter registrars, school board members, governors, and state and federal judges—who were determined to preserve racial segregation throughout the South, Emanuel said.
Anne Emanuel, professor of law emerita (from left), meets with retired Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“The panel discussion was an attempt to illustrate the way it was during the Civil Rights era using narratives and personal experience,” Emanuel said. “Judge Jones spoke about his work as a litigator with the NAACP on the team led by Thurgood Marshall, and Judge Stewart shared how his family was affected by Jim Crow laws.”
Emanuel talked about the courage it took for Tuttle and other judges of the time to adhere to the rule of law in the face of physical threats and sudden, stunning ostracization.
“They suddenly became pariahs,” she said. “They went overnight from being among the most respected members of their communities to being despised.”
Emanuel attributes the ability of federal judges like Tuttle to summon the necessary courage to three factors. “Tongue in cheek, I suggested to the assembled judges that the first factor might be a hard sell because no research supports it; nevertheless, I assert that people who attain an appointment to the federal bench tend to have more strength of character, stronger backbones than the average person,” she said.
Second, as the litigation proceeded, the judges were forced to comprehend the brutality of life for black people under Jim Crow, Emanuel said. “There was no longer room for willful blindness.”
“And the third factor, perhaps the most critical and profound, was that they quickly realized that among their colleagues on the bench there was a significant cohort of obstructionists—a polite term for those determined to not see Brown succeed because they believed in the myth of white supremacy and were determined to prevent ‘race mixing.’ Because of that cohort of federal judges, the rule of law itself and the integrity of the federal courts was at stake.”
Emanuel said she was honored to be invited to speak at the symposium, and especially to be on a panel with two judges who have made such important contributions. She also enjoyed the panel “One Term, Two Courts” featuring the Supreme Court justices.
“It was wonderful to be able hear them carry on a casual but informative discussion of the Supreme Court,” she said.
Emanuel said other high points of the conference were a reception at the Supreme Court and a tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture with remarks from its founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III.