
Yesterday, May 17th, marked the 57th anniversary of the unanimous 1954 United States Supreme Court decisions, Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, which announced the unconstitutionality of racial segregation in public elementary and secondary schools.
In this previous Jackson List post (May 17, 1954), I described events of that day at the Supreme Court, including Justice Jackson’s dramatic return to the bench to be a visible part of the Court’s unanimity after spending 49 days in a hospital: www.stjohns.edu/media/3/e91120fbc8224bc88f3dc88ccbac5d07.pdf?d=20100517.
Continue reading "Jackson List: Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe By Prof. JOHN Q. BARRETT" »
Sixty-five years ago this week, Justice Robert H. Jackson flew from here to Paris on one of the many diplomatic missions that were parts of his Nuremberg trial year. Justice Jackson traveled to Paris in spring 1946 to accept, finally, invitations that the French government, bar and prosecutors at Nuremberg had been tendering to him for many months.
Continue reading "Greetings from Nuremberg By John Q. Barrett" »

The Yonkers Connection
On November 2, 1940, the Saturday before Election Day, Robert H. Jackson, the Attorney General of the United States, delivered the principal speech at a political meeting outside of New York City. That year featured a presidential election that Jackson and many believed would be close and, for Democrats, possibly a defeat: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking an unprecedented third term, was on the ballot against Republican Party nominee Wendell Willkie. Many races for the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, where the Democrats held majorities, also were tight contests.
Continue reading "Saturday Night Advice for U.S. Voters Next Tuesday (1940) BY Prof. John Q. Barrett " »
Two hundred and twenty-three years ago tonight, thirty-eight weary delegates to a convention in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States. Four handwritten sheets of parchment were enough to state the terms on which thirteen independent weak little republics agreed to try to survive together as one strong nation. ...
Continue reading "September 17th - Constitution Day BY Prof. John Q. Barrett" »
On March 27, 2010, Shirley Sherrod, then the United States Department of Agriculture’s Director of Rural Development in the State of Georgia, gave a now-famous speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter of Coffee County, Georgia.
Continue reading "Jackson List: Shirley Sherrod on Screws v. United States, in 1945, Today & Tomorrow BY PROF. JOHN Q. BARRETT" »