Jack Greenberg (lawyer)
Encyclopedia
Jack Greenberg is an American
attorney and legal scholar. He was the Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1961 to 1984, succeeding Thurgood Marshall.
He was involved in numerous crucial cases, including Brown v. Board of Education
. In all, he argued 40 civil rights
cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice Dean of Columbia Law School, and is currently the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Professor of Law at Columbia University
's Law School.
in 1945, and Columbia Law School
in 1948.
("LDF") in 1949, and, in 1961, succeeded Thurgood Marshall
as LDF's Director-Counsel.
Greenberg recalled his earliest arguments before the Supreme Court, saying:
In addition to arguing Brown v. Board of Education as co-counsel with Thurgood Marshall, other cases Greenberg argued include Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, which ordered the end of segregated school systems "at once," and Griggs v. Duke Power Company, which outlawed basing employment and promotion decisions on the results of tests with a discriminatory impact. He also argued Furman v. Georgia
(1972), in which the Court held that the death penalty as it was then applied was a violation of the "cruel and unusual punishment
" clause of the Eighth Amendment
.
Greenberg is a founding member of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
and of Human Rights Watch
.
in 1971, and a visiting professor at College of the City of New York
in 1977.
He was appointed to co-teach a Harvard Law School
class on race law in 1982 that had formerly been taught by Derrick Bell
, who had resigned. When Black students questioned his selection, asking why a Black professor had not been appointed in his stead, Harvard stood by its choice. Black students boycotted the class, which ended up having a nearly all-White enrollment. On the first day of the class, Greenberg had to pass angry protesters. He recalled: "Someone said, 'Aren't you scared?' I said, 'No, I was on the beach at Iwo Jima
.' I wasn't scared. But I was really damned annoyed."
Greenberg left LDF in 1984 to become a professor and Vice Dean at Columbia Law School
. He served as Dean of Columbia College
from 1989 to 1993. Greenberg's teaching interests include constitutional law
, civil rights, and human rights
law, civil procedure
, "Kafka and the Law", and South Africa's post-apartheid constitution. As of fall 2009, Greenberg still taught at Columbia Law School, and served as a senior director of LDF.
He was also a distinguished visiting professor at University of Tokyo
Faculty of Law in 1993-94 and at St. Louis University Law School in 1994, and a visiting professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in 1994 and 1996, at Princeton University
in 1995, at University of Munich in 1998, at Tokyo University in 1996 and 1998, at University of Nuremberg-Erlangen in 1999-2000, and at Hebrew University in 2005.
Dean James Vorenberg
, 1990), and appeared as a panelist for a New York Times tasting of Oregon
pinot noir
. He also edited Franz Kafka: The Office Writings
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008) with two other scholars.
. President Bill Clinton
commented "In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century."
In 1998 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
.
In 1996 Greenberg was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award by the American Bar Association
for his long-term contributions to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the U.S.
Greenberg received an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Notre Dame University in 2005. He also received an honorary degree from Howard University
in 2004.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney and legal scholar. He was the Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1961 to 1984, succeeding Thurgood Marshall.
He was involved in numerous crucial cases, including Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
. In all, he argued 40 civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice Dean of Columbia Law School, and is currently the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Professor of Law at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Law School.
Education
Greenberg graduated from Columbia CollegeColumbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
in 1945, and Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
in 1948.
Civil and human rights lawyer
Greenberg became the only white legal counselor for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational FundNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
("LDF") in 1949, and, in 1961, succeeded Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
as LDF's Director-Counsel.
Greenberg recalled his earliest arguments before the Supreme Court, saying:
"It was like a religious experience; the first few times I was there I was full of awe. I had an almost tactile feeling. The first time I was in the Court, I wasn't arguing. I felt as if I were in a synagogue, and reached to see whether or not I had a yarmulke on. I thought I ought to have one on."
In addition to arguing Brown v. Board of Education as co-counsel with Thurgood Marshall, other cases Greenberg argued include Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, which ordered the end of segregated school systems "at once," and Griggs v. Duke Power Company, which outlawed basing employment and promotion decisions on the results of tests with a discriminatory impact. He also argued Furman v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. The case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was...
(1972), in which the Court held that the death penalty as it was then applied was a violation of the "cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...
" clause of the Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
.
Greenberg is a founding member of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States...
and of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
.
Educator
Greenberg was an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School from 1970–84, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law SchoolYale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
in 1971, and a visiting professor at College of the City of New York
College of the City of New York
The College of the City of New York is the former name of New York University's undergraduate college when the university was named "University of the City of New York"....
in 1977.
He was appointed to co-teach a Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
class on race law in 1982 that had formerly been taught by Derrick Bell
Derrick Bell
Derrick Albert Bell, Jr. was the first tenured African-American professor of Law at Harvard University, and largely credited as the originator of Critical Race Theory. He was the former dean of the University of Oregon School of Law.- Education and early career :Born in the Hill District of...
, who had resigned. When Black students questioned his selection, asking why a Black professor had not been appointed in his stead, Harvard stood by its choice. Black students boycotted the class, which ended up having a nearly all-White enrollment. On the first day of the class, Greenberg had to pass angry protesters. He recalled: "Someone said, 'Aren't you scared?' I said, 'No, I was on the beach at Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
.' I wasn't scared. But I was really damned annoyed."
Greenberg left LDF in 1984 to become a professor and Vice Dean at Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
. He served as Dean of Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
from 1989 to 1993. Greenberg's teaching interests include constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, civil rights, and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
law, civil procedure
Civil procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits...
, "Kafka and the Law", and South Africa's post-apartheid constitution. As of fall 2009, Greenberg still taught at Columbia Law School, and served as a senior director of LDF.
He was also a distinguished visiting professor at University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
Faculty of Law in 1993-94 and at St. Louis University Law School in 1994, and a visiting professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in 1994 and 1996, at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1995, at University of Munich in 1998, at Tokyo University in 1996 and 1998, at University of Nuremberg-Erlangen in 1999-2000, and at Hebrew University in 2005.
Author
Greenberg has varied intellectual interests: aside from several books on law and civil rights, including Crusaders in the Courts, he has written a cookbook (Dean Cuisine, with Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
Dean James Vorenberg
James Vorenberg
James Vorenberg, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1927, was the Roscoe Pound Professor of Law and ninth Dean of Harvard Law School, former Watergate Associate Special Prosecutor, and first chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission...
, 1990), and appeared as a panelist for a New York Times tasting of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
pinot noir
Pinot Noir
Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...
. He also edited Franz Kafka: The Office Writings
Franz Kafka: The Office Writings
Franz Kafka: The Office Writings is a collection of essays, letters and articles composed by Franz Kafka during his years as a high-ranking lawyer with the largest Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute in the Czech lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The collection was edited by Stanley...
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008) with two other scholars.
Awards
In 2001, Greenberg was awarded a Presidential Citizens MedalPresidential Citizens Medal
The Presidential Citizens Medal is the second highest civilian award in the United States, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded by the President of the United States, and may be given posthumously....
. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
commented "In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century."
In 1998 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
.
In 1996 Greenberg was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
for his long-term contributions to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the U.S.
Greenberg received an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Notre Dame University in 2005. He also received an honorary degree from Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
in 2004.
Select publications
- Race Relations and American Law (1959)
- Litigation for Social Change (1973)
- Cases and Materials on Judicial Process and Social Change (1976)
- Dean Cuisine: The Liberated Man's Guide to Fine Cooking (with Vorenberg, 1991)
- Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution (1994)
- Crusaders in the Courts; Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement (2004)
- Brown v. Board of Education; Witness to A Landmark Decision (2004)
External links
- Columbia Law School bio
- Fordham Law bio
- Howard University bio
- Civil Rights Digital Library bio
- jrank bio
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18988292004 Interview on National Public Radio with Tavis SmileyTavis SmileyTavis Smiley is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of...
: 'Brown' Lawyer Jack Greenberg] - 2004 Interview with the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project on the University of Texas Libraries website