Taming the Storm

Taming the Storm PDF Author: Jack Bass
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820325316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
Thrust into the center of a raging storm over civil rights, Frank M. Johnson, Jr., was the youngest federal judge in the country at the time of his appointment in 1955. During his twenty-four years on the district court in Montgomery, Alabama, Johnson handed down a string of precedent-setting decisions that were vastly unpopular at the time but that would prove to have profound consequences for America's future. Not only did Johnson's trailblazing opinions greatly expand the access of African Americans to their constitutional rights, but his opinions also helped to dismantle discrimination against women, prison inmates, and the mentally ill. Johnson paid a heavy price for his judicial vision, however, for he had to endure public scorn, death threats, and the outrage of a society that felt itself and its values to be under siege. Eventually Johnson prevailed, winning honor even in his native Alabama and a respected place in the history of the civil rights movement. Taming the Storm is the story of an authentic American hero and the era he did so much to define.

Taming the Storm

Taming the Storm PDF Author: Jack Bass
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820325316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 548

Get Book Here

Book Description
Thrust into the center of a raging storm over civil rights, Frank M. Johnson, Jr., was the youngest federal judge in the country at the time of his appointment in 1955. During his twenty-four years on the district court in Montgomery, Alabama, Johnson handed down a string of precedent-setting decisions that were vastly unpopular at the time but that would prove to have profound consequences for America's future. Not only did Johnson's trailblazing opinions greatly expand the access of African Americans to their constitutional rights, but his opinions also helped to dismantle discrimination against women, prison inmates, and the mentally ill. Johnson paid a heavy price for his judicial vision, however, for he had to endure public scorn, death threats, and the outrage of a society that felt itself and its values to be under siege. Eventually Johnson prevailed, winning honor even in his native Alabama and a respected place in the history of the civil rights movement. Taming the Storm is the story of an authentic American hero and the era he did so much to define.

Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr

Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr PDF Author: Robert Francis Kennedy
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A biography of the federal judge who fought for the cause of civil rights in Alabama.

The Judge

The Judge PDF Author: Frank Sikora
Publisher: NewSouth Books
ISBN: 1603061401
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the black drive for civil rights, but the changes he sought came largely in legal opinions issues by federal judges. Foremost of these was Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., of Montgomery, Alabama, who presided over some of the most emotional hearings and trials of the rights movement—hearings brimming with dramatic and poignant testimony from the black people who cried out for the freedoms that are the legacy of all Americans. Beginning with Judge Johnson’s coming-of-age in the hill country of Winston County, Alabama, this book covers many of his notable cases: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, school desegregation, the Selma-to-Montgomery march, and the night-rider slaying of Viola Liuzzo, as well as Johnson’s work for prisoners, women, and the mentally ill. Much of the book is comprised of interviews and direct quotes from Johnson himself, making this recounting of Judge Johnson’s life dynamically autobiographical. Includes a new introduction and afterward by the author, Frank Sikora.

You Were Right and We Were Wrong

You Were Right and We Were Wrong PDF Author: Jeffrey Smith
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781522755081
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
For 37 years, Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. served his country as a United States Attorney, Federal District Judge, and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge. At the time, Johnson was the youngest man in history (at age 37) to be appointed as Federal District Judge, and subsequently played a pivotal role in facilitating desegregation. From his courtroom in Alabama's capitol city, Judge Johnson helped transform Montgomery from the "Cradle of the Confederacy" to the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement." Johnson's judicial edicts, intensely unpopular with the majority of white Alabamians, who embraced the delusional doctrine of "separate but equal," facilitated the end of blatant segregation in Alabama's school systems and other public facilities. Bill Moyers, journalist and one-time aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, proclaimed that Johnson "altered forever the face of the South." Martin Luther King characterized Johnson as "the man who gave the true meaning to the word justice." Among the multitude of cases argued in Johnson's courtroom included the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the violent, racially motivated attacks against the Freedom Riders, disenfranchisement of black voters, the Selma to Montgomery March, school desegregation, neglect and mistreatment of the hospitalized mentally ill, and violations of the constitutional rights of prison inmates. Stoic and unencumbered by second guessing, Frank Johnson, Jr. left an edible mark on history.

Judge Frank M. Johnson, jr. A biogr

Judge Frank M. Johnson, jr. A biogr PDF Author: Robert F. Kennedy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Frank M. Johnson, Jr

Frank M. Johnson, Jr PDF Author: Frank Sikora
Publisher: Seacoast Publishing
ISBN: 9781594210457
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


Defending Constitutional Rights

Defending Constitutional Rights PDF Author: Frank Minis Johnson
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820322858
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson of Alabama decided many of the most important civil rights and liberties cases in twentieth-century American history. During the 1950s and 1960s, his decisions supported Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights fighters in their struggles for justice and equality. Johnson extended the Constitutional defense of individual rights for women, students, prisoners, mental health patients, poor criminal defendants, and voters during his active judicial career in Alabama and the South, which lasted until 1991. This collection assembles some of Johnson's most thought-provoking and insightful essays, many of which explain and defend a number of his decisions. Also included in this volume is the first published transcript of a 1980 public television interview with Bill Moyers. Meticulously detailed and documented, yet accessible to a wide range of readers, this book explores the constitutional ideals that Johnson forged and defended as he persistently overcame public officials' resistance to constitutional rights and social change.

In Memoriam

In Memoriam PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description


Judge Frank Johnson and Human Rights in Alabama

Judge Frank Johnson and Human Rights in Alabama PDF Author: Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Department of Political Science Tinsley E Yarbrough
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN: 9780817312145
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama until his elevation to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1979, was perhaps President Dwight D. Eisenhower's most significant appointment to a lower court. His selection to the bench in 1955 followed by only a few months the Supreme Court's historic decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. During Judge Johnson's tenure, his court invalidated segregation and other forms of racial discrimination in Alabama's transportation facilities, voter registration processes, school and colleges, administrative agencies, system of jury selection, prisons, mental institutions, political parties, and government grant programs. In fact, most of the state's major racial crises were resolved in his courtroom. However, his impact on human rights policy in Alabama was not confined to a racial context. Among other significant developments, the Middle District Court ordered reapportionment of the state's governing bodies and invalidated its grossly inequitable property tax systems.Judge Johnson's decisions made him one of the most widely respected and controversial trial judges in the country. Until recently, however, his name was anathema to many white Alabamians, and he and his family were subject to ostracism, threats, violence, and verbal abuse.Yarbrough examines Judge Johnson's life through the end of the Wallace era and the Judge's appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court. More broadly, the book is a history of modern human rights reform in Alabama, cast in the biographical idiom. For, in a real sense, the history of the reform and of Judge Johnson's judicial career have been synonymous.

Storm Clouds Risin'

Storm Clouds Risin' PDF Author: Don Edward Black
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781532344435
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
This play is labeled a Documentary Drama and well suited for stage. For high school(s), however, it is primarily a teaching play, and is useful in class because it reveals an insight to the civil rights struggle that is not detailed in most junior and senior high school classes. The first portion of this play brings to life the character, Judge Johnson, regaling his experiences as a Federal Judge. It is a one-man play. The last portion continues with Johnson still as the main character, and includes five witnesses, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and future Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. Together, they tell the story of Selma from a first-person account.