What was he? He was a lot of things: a Yale Phi Beta Kappa, a Columbia L.L.B., a first lieutenant in World War I's A.E.F., now an assistant district attorney of the State of New Yorkthe information Francis Ellis Rivers put down in applying for membership in the American Bar Association was more than adequate.
Where the application blank asked "white, Negro, Indian, or Mongolian?" he checked "Negro." The application was neither accepted nor rejected. Nothing happened.
Then, -for pigeonholing his application, the Bar Association found itself under indictment by an angry grand jury of its own members. Led by the...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
