Professor argued 1954 civil rights case
Wilson views integration
By WILLIAM MORRISSEY Kansan staff writer
A University of Kansas law professor is viewing the struggle of the Southern states fighting forced integration with more than a passing interest.
Paul E. Wilson was counsel for the State of Kansas in the 1954 case of Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education, which resulted in the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court denouncing the "separate but equal" doctrine for education.
Wilson became involved with the case as a member of the Kansas Attorney General's staff in 1952. Shortly after the "Brown" case was appealed, four similar cases from other states were also appealed to the Supreme Court. No briefs had been filed, however, by the Board of Education in the Kansas case. Because of the national importance of the case and the fact that it was the first one to be heard, the Supreme Court requested the Attorney General of Kansas to present the state's oral views. Due to an inflexible schedule, the Attorney General was unable to appear and Wilson was assigned to present the case. He had only ten days to prepare his brief and arguments.
Due to the impact this decision has made on the public school system, especially in the South, the Kansan talked with Professor Wilson concerning the case and his views on the school situation today.
Wilson pointed out that he defended the case from a professional duty to the Court and to
the State of Kansas and not because he believed in school segregation.
Basically, Wilson said, the case rested on the clause in the Fourteenth Amendment which said, "No state shall make or enforce any law to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the law."
The critical question was whether Kansas segregated school facilities denied a substantial number of children equal protection under the law.
When shown a remark by Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Georgia), which said the senator was under the impression that the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation ruling had insisted students no longer be classified by race, Wilson said the question was whether in providing public education, the students were to have the maximum opportunity to learn and prepare for life in the kind of environment they would be in after school. It's true, he said, that in dealing with quotas and busing we have an intermediate step, in which race is a factor. The educational objective, however, is equality regardless of race and this was the earlier view the Supreme Court took, Wilson said.
Asked how he viewed the effects recent court orders were having on southern schools. Wilson said, "One view is that they've had 15 years and haven't complied. Whatever problems they've had they brought on themselves.
At the same time, the problems are real and ought to be determined in the best interests of the children involved."
Concerning the controversy over the Feb. 1 deadline set down by the Supreme Court for several Southern school districts, Wilson said, "As a lawyer I must accept the decision of the Supreme Court as final. It is the judicial department that has to make the ultimate decision where constitutional rights are an issue."
Regarding busing, he said that possibly a point could be reached where the prejudice that arises from the hours and distances involved in busing would be greater than that of racial imbalance.
Wilson said he suspected there may be as much de facto segregation in parts of the north as the South. "I see no reason," he said, "why we should impose limitations upon the south while we aren't in our own community."
Wilson said he thought the reason the Court had failed to hear the de facto issue in the North was that in the Southern states the local governments have passed laws requiring separate facilities whereas in the North segregation came about by reason of how the communities developed, without the sanction of law. He said it was "easy to solve discrimination by law but hard to break up patterns that arise not from the law but people's habits."
The consequences, Wilson said, involved in de facto segregation were the same. "The fact that
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strong personal opinions on a case should not be permitted to impose sentences for contempt of court "without the benefit of a jury."
In New York, Edward J. Ennis, chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union called the summary contempt sentences "unconstitutional." He indicated his organization would probably take part in any appeal as a friend of the court.
While the jury deliberation dragged on, a band of about 60 protesters tried to keep warm in the chilly Chicago night outside the federal building where the trial has been in progress since Sept.24.
They chanted "Jail Hoffman" and "Free the "Conspiracy." They also made a creditable attempt to sing the "Star Spangled Banner" in chorus.
12 KANSAN Feb. 16 1970
As the judge and lawyer stood face to face in a nearly empty courtroom, Hoffman declared he had never sentenced a lawyer for contempt before and Kunstler said no judge had ever disciplined him in his often stormy career of pressing civil rights cases around the country.
tion to "fan the flames of disorder" in the courtroom despite "warning after warning, admonition after admonition," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said, "I am one of those who believe that crime, if it is on the increase, is so in large part because, waiting in the wings, are lawyers who are willing to go beyond professional responsibility in the defense of their clients.
"Some clients know this and it has a stimulating effect on the increase of crime," Hoffman said.
Kunstler said that if he and any other defense lawyer must go to jail, "We are the most privileged of men. We are being punished for our beliefs.
Kunstler had persisted in ac-
"I suddenly feel compassion for you," Kunstler told Hoffman. "Everything else has dropped away."
Weinglass spoke with emotion to the judge of how members of the defense staff had been working until 3 a.m., living on $20 a week, and sleeping on the floor of his apartment during the long trial.
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parents select one school because it is better than another ought to be an occasion for community concern about the less desirable schools. The objective is equality in the schools and to provide every child the opportunity to learn and grow."
In addition to being the Assistant Attorney General at the
time of the "Brown" case, Wilson is the principal draftsman of the Law Revision Committee which drafted the Kansas Criminal Code that goes into effect in July and the proposed Kansas Code of Criminal Procedure which is presently a bill before the Kansas Legislature. He is also the U.S. Magistrate in Lawrence.
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