Signing table. Thank you again for everyone attending here live. The signing table is directly outside the auditorium. Again we would like to thank mr. Peters on the habs of the lit fest and the lit fest appreciates your feedback which you can provide at pictures wrote lit best. Org. Thank you. [applause]. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] heres a look at books that are being published this week. Journalist Judith Schwartz look at ways to improve water availability and by the certification and water in plain sight. In the new trail appears, New York Post columnist naomi riley puts forth the policies she says will help american indians, from increased access to education to Legal Protections and entry into the free market. University at buffalo Political Science Professor James campbell looks at the causes of americas Political Division in, polarize. In the grid Gretchen Bakke reports on americas aging Energy Infrastructure and how to modernize it. Neuroscientist dean burnett examines white brains work where they do. Why people remember faces but not names, search for things in plain sight and lie awake at night. In, idiot brain. Joe pollick talks about 19 truths that liberals cant handle. Look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv, on cspan2. [inaudible] [inaudible] good afternoon everyone. My name is kendra, im a member of archive staff at the Franklin D Roosevelt library and museum. On behalf of behalf of the Library Museum i like to welcome me to the reading festival. Franklin d roosevelts plan for the library to become the premier Research Institution for the studying of the entire assault era. The librarys Research Room is one of the busiest of all the president ial libraries in this years group of authors reflect the wide right of Research Done here. If you love the roosevelt reading festival i want to support this and other programs encourage you to become a member of the library. Please consider joining us on our 75th you University Programming later this month. You can learn more about membership and events at Debbie Debbie debbie. Fdr library. Org. Well go over the format for the sessions. At the top of each hour session begins with a 30 minute author talk followed by a ten minute question and answer period. Then the others will move to the tables in the lobby where you can purchase your books and have the other sign them. At the top of the next hour the process repeats itself. If you have a question please use the mic located to the left of the room and the author will call on you if you have questions. It is my pleasure to introduce marlene trust me. Marlene is the author of fair labor lawyer. She is now writing the history of new orleans home 1885 1946. But put strong personal experiences. Or been strong personal experiences. Or been at age 11, she was awarded the agency that seceded the home which she was raised a halfcentury earlier. The the two women spent time together while they attend a college and started her legal career. A former special assistant to the Maryland Attorney general, she supports laws governing tobacco, alcohol, and internet safety. For her writing she has funny from the national down from humanities, American Jews archive and the literary work from Supreme Court historical society. Please join me and will welcoming marlene chessmen. Thank you. It is an honor to be here at the fdr library. It was not even a twinkle in my eye when i was researching here that one day i would be back to speak about the book. So book. So i am grateful and honored to be here. Through a life that spans the 20th century, Bessie Margaret had made her mark on the biggest issues of her day. She served on the brilliant legal team that defended the constitutionality of fdrs new deal Tennessee Valley authority. She drafted rules for the nazi were trying trials in nuremberg ever more than three decades she championed the fair labor standards act, ultimately including the equal pay act. She was also a founder of the National Organization of women, known as now. Entrusted with the Labor Departments litigation, she presented 24 arguments at the Supreme Court, one of only three women in the 20th century to do so. She prevailed in 21 of them. For 20 for 20 years solicitors in general assign those arguments to her and she was the last Labor Department lawyer to receive that distinction. She began her legal career in 1931 only 2 of americas lawyers were women. She served in the federal government under six president s from fdr dash next then and nine labor secretarys start with frances perkins. She received every award the Labor Department offered and by 1963 was promoted to associate solicitor, the top nonpolitical legal goal position. In. In short, before there was a notorious rgb, as justice in spurt has been called, there was bessie. After retiring in 1972 she dated from the public record. It is not hard to understand why she deserves to be rescued from obscurity but id like to explain how i came to the task. In the fall 1974i was a freshman at Goucher College in baltimore. Far from my home in new orleans. My High School Guidance counselor had written margolin, a distinguished alumna from our class of 1925, the letter of introduction shown here. Through college, law school, and into my legal career i got to know bessie margolin. She margolin. She was the first female lawyer i ever met and we were connected by common childhood experiences. Bessie and i were wards of the same southern jewish childrens Welfare Agency which educated i said its Newman School a halfcentury apart. Bessie personified excellence in the law and in public service, at a time when women attorneys were discouraged if not outright prevented from pursuing opportunities available to men while protecting the rights of millions of American Workers she also advance the careers of countless government lawyers and employees. Many of whom sought out her prestigious and demanding tutelage. The late Simon Sokolov who is chief judge of both marylands court of appeals and the federal Fourth Circuit and a former solicitor general offered only to suggestions for lawyers seeking a career in federal appellate practice. They should work in either the office of the solicitor general naturally or the office of bessie margolin. I would like to share her journey from beneficiarys social justice to its powerful advocate and along the way i offer a few examples of the wonderful resources here at the fdr library that enabled me to understand bessie margolins journey. These were resources that preserved the needles of her remarkable life amid the archival haystack of more celebrated individuals. Bessie was born in 19 oh 09 in brooklyn new york, the First American born daughter of jewish immigrants. From there to escape new yorks tough and crowded conditions bessies families made its way to memphis, tennessee. About one year after giving birth to a third child, bessies mother died leaving bessies father alone to care for his three young children. The margolins plight attracted the attention of them memphis rabbi who petitioned the jewish orphans home in new orleans to accept the children as have four friend. In 1913, the orphanage the orphanage admitted bessie at age four and her siblings. Proclaimed a magnificent monument to hebrew pennell vince, the home as it was known, set prominently on st. Charles avenue near the stately mansions of new orleans most prosperous citizens. As both a stunning contrast stunning contrast to the humble origins of its young residents and an inspiring symbol of what each of them could and many of them did achieve. In the home bessie grew up with more than 150 other orphans and half orphans throughout the deep south. Its trustees were not content to provide them with a mere subsistence. Instead, the home groom to bessie as an allamerican girl who shut honor on the local Jewish Community and reflected the values and culture of her prosperous benefactors. In addition to a religious education and reform judaism which preached and modeled social justice, the home provided bessie a robust secular education at the Isadore Newman Manual Training School where the cuttingedge curriculum emphasize manual skills like Home Economics and woodworking, as well as rigorous academics. The home, built this unique school to educate its words but also admitted new orleans children of all religions whose parents pay tuition. Newman quickly became what it remains today, one of the souths finest College Prep Schools and there, bessie excelled in every subject. She graduated from newman in 1925 is a 16yearold leader who is comfortable and a coed setting, competing, succeeding, and winning respect. Besides leaving the debate club and the girls student council, bessie was valedictorian and won the scholarship to attend newcomb college. Tulane universitys cornett college for women. Bessie spent two years at newcomb, ranking among the top ten in in her class. The audacious a bessie wanted more. Bessie decided to attend a school, tulane law schools only woman woman at the time bessie felt isolated and selfconscious. She and her male classmates soon adjusted to each other. When a professor assigned assigned a Court Case Involving an accident and that mans bathroom, no one wanted to recite the facts of the the case because were embarrassed to use the word toilet in mixed company. When one poor fellow finally blurted out the word washroom, they all sighed with relief. In june, 1930 at age 21, bessie completed her liberal arts and lost studies with honors in only five years. She graduated honors in only five years. She graduated second in her Law School Class and was an editor of the law review. Tulane law schools urged yelp last school dean Charles Clark to hire bessie or award her fellowship for graduate study. Clark found bessie worthy of a job job but refused to consider her for a fellowship because he did not want to encourage her to pursue a career teaching law that simply did not exist for a woman. They assured clark that bessie was, in his words, quote, quote a levelheaded girl who knew some things in this world must be taken as they are. With her fate determined by the two deans, bessie accepted a Research Position with yale law professor Ernest Lorenz and. An an expert in comparative law and conflicts. While in new haven, bessie impressed both lorenz and and a widely popular young faculty member, william o douglas. The future Supreme Court justice. With their health their health bessie overcame dean clarks earlier opposition and she became the first woman awarded yells sterling fellowship for graduate study. With her yale doctorate, bessie moved to washington for a new opportunity. She applied she applied for a job at the Tennessee Valley authority which congress had just created and realized fdrs new deal vision of supplying electricity to the balance most impoverished residents. Among her letters of recommendation, professor lorenz and wrote to hire its first woman lawyer. Bessie was intent on the legal career as a primary objective from which she would not be deflected by considerations of marriage. Bessie thus began her federal government career with a pledge that she would be married to her job instead of a man. Fearing competition, Public Utility Companies hurl charges of socialism that turned into lawsuits. To defend this new deal cornerstone they hired harvard law graduate an experienced trial where the justice department. He may bessie a key member of tvas a brilliant legal team. Two landmark Supreme Court cases that established the legality of it tbas Power Program and later the Tennessee Electric Power Company over shadowed tvas legal work in the early years. Bessie researched, prepared witnesses, and materially shake the breathable cases. And her other work she negotiated contracts and got courtroom experience and condemnation cases despite years resistance for a woman lawyer from local attorneys, judges, and even witnesses. Bessie won the respect of her tba colleagues including herbert s martz, pictured in the top left of the group photo would go on to serve as a general counsel to the Atomic Energy commission and whose papers i researched at the library. How did bessie feel about her chosen profession . She shared her thoughts in the magazine. Laws to greatly greatly restricted for women with considerable prejudice against them she wrote. She offered this nononsense advice. A woman attorney must manage to be accepted and treated as another man and must be willing to take responsibility, criticism, and hard work in the same spirit as to the men attorney. She must aim to become one of the men without however big coming masculine or overly aggressive in her approach. Bessie practice what she preached throughout her career. In march, 1939 bessie joined the Labor Department where another great new deal program awaited and for smit. Theyre the smit. Theyre the fair labor standards act of 1938 invoked federal commerce powers to prohibit child labor into guaranteed minimum wages and overtime. Bessie was there as every new aspect of the law was tested. Her first week she traveled home to new orleans where she was a motion. By years and she returned to new orleans several more times on fl essay matters including a Supreme Court lawsuit that challenged the minimum wage for textile workers, then 32. 5 cents per hour. The. The new Orleans Press loved bessies local over and girl story. One full fulllength photo shown here captured bessie and oppose more cheesecake than lawyerly. Why wasnt she married the press wanted to know. The reporter recounted bessies quay response this way. I havent had time to love. Then she smiled. But i am not a a mu. I am just uncontaminated. Doctor marble and brush back a lock of soft, black hair, hair, so far she had it. Bessie remarks was a witty like a line from a Katherine Hepburn movie. Revealing bessies passion for wordsmith three. Second, she seemed neither defensive or selfconscious about being single. There, it just was not true. Im going to digress to discuss a topic im often ask about discuss a topic im often ask about and that is bessies personal life. It doesnt fit neatly in the confines of her career history, precisely illustrates the challenges she faced as an ambitious, professional woman overtime. During law school bessie was engaged to her classmate, the dashing bob butler. She broke it off in late 1933, surprising no 33, surprising no one who knew her except perhaps for bob. Little did bob realize that his dream of marrying bessie was doomed from the start. When he gave her a book inscribed, to my sweetheart bess, she inscribed the margins and blank pages of the very same book as you can see here with extensive passages from virginia works recent ominous essay, a room of ones own. Extolling the importance of women having space, literally and figuratively. Then there was larry fly, bessies tvas tva boss who is married with two children. Their affair was a widespread secret. That that is what colleagues, flies wife and even bessie told flies daughter who is writing her fathers never finish biography. Remarkably, the romance did not impair by supervision of tva lawyers who prays to fly for running one of the best law departments inside or out of government. Nor did any colleague every claim that he favored her in a tva with assignments or promotions she did not merit. The romance however had other consequences for marble in an fly who is appointed chair of the federal communications commission. In 1943 georgia congressman, eugene cox, commandeered a congressional eugene cox, commandeered a Congressional Committee to investigate the fcc, accusing him and the agency of gestapo tactics to control the media and other on american activities. The investigators scrutinize the bessie of flies tva travel vouchers shown here to uncover socalled honeymoon trips they took together at government expense and interrogated bessies housekeepers, landlords, neighbors and coworkers. But before cox ever question fly publicly about the affair, congressman sam rayburn and Lyndon Johnson interceded. Rayburn reportedly told cox and i quote, there in going to be no sex in this investigation. Theres too damn many of us that are vulnerable on that score. Although cox oblige, bessies romance with fly kept resurfacing. In 1947 bessies membership in 47 bessies membership in the National Lawyers guild and other liberal groups raced a red flag so to speak for the government Loyalty Board which referred the matter to the fbi. Although they uncovered no evidence of disloyalty, fbi agents learned that bessie had been flies mistress which they dutifully recorded in her file. When bessies loyalty was again questioned in the 1950s, the chargers were again dismissed but only after the fbi revisited her file and her illicit love affair. The affair resurfaced one more time in the 1960s when president johnson considered bessie for a federal judgeship. Responding to a name check request, the fbi fbi sent a memo to the white house summarizing its prior investigations including bessies illicit level michael love affair from two decades earlier. There are at least three lessons bessie should have learned from her romance with fly. Do not get involved with a direct report. Be very discreet. And. And do not get involved with a married man. Bessie heeded the first two of these three lessons when she fell in love with bob ginn naming, the wellrespected general counsel to the interstate commerce commission. He was not her direct report, although he was a professional colleague who argued a dozen more times at the Supreme Court that she did. She was very discreet. Friends and family were stunned when bessie announced in 1981, after bobs wife died that they plan to marry. s done not only because bessie and bob were both in their 70s and everyone figured bessie would never marry, but mostly because no one knew anything about the relationship which started two decades earlier. Sadly, bob died in 1984 before 84 before he and bessie realize their plans for marriage. The drama of bessies personal life never impeded her work. In her early in her early years of the Labor Department she paid her dues traveling, reviewing timesheets in damp warehouses and traveling back roads to interview vegetable packers and law cutters. She organized the Labor Departments regional offices and train the regional attorneys. She began attorneys. She began arguing and winning appeals in the circuit courts and started working with the Solicitor Generals Office office on cases headed for the Supreme Court. Bessies high quality worker and her recognition, solicitor general charles fahey, the future federal appellate judge whose papers are preserved at the library was delighted with the Supreme Court brief she principally wrote in her help preparing him for his successful Supreme Court argument. When he learned that bessie had already argued in every federal circuit across the country he promised that she could argue the next fair standards act case. In march, 19451945 is only the 25th woman ever to argue Supreme Court, she argued seeking to ensure the act protected the warehouse employees of an interstate Grocery Store chain. After what must have been a lively argument, Justice Robert jackson mark the occasion with a thoughtful note. The first of several he wrote to bessie over the years. I hope you are satisfied with the way the court argued your first case. In any event, you have every reason to feel satisfied with the way you took care of yourself under fire. I am sure there will be no dissent from the opinion that you should argue here often. Bessie won the case, establishing that fair labor standards act exemptions must be narrowly construed. In 1945 alone, bessie argued for more times at the Supreme Court and prevailed in three. These and the rest of the cases she argued advanced the acts humanitarian purposes by extending coverage and restricting exemptions to protect wage earners to the full extent congress intended. When bessie presented her fourth and fifth Supreme Court arguments, Justice Jackson was not on the bench. He was in nuremberg, as the u. S. Chief prosecutor for nazi war crimes. Appointed by president truman just two weeks after fdrs death, this new and exciting legal pursuit attracted bessie who in may 1946 went to nuremberg to help organize the American Military tribunals. For her sixmonth tour of duty the armys Commanding Officer acknowledged bessies primary role in drafting the rules that govern the remainder of the nazi work crime trials of nearly 200 secondtier nazis including the judges, the doctors, and the industrialists. In december, 1946, bessie return to the Labor Department for assistant solicitor. She epitomized the new postwar ideal of a glamorous career girl succeeding in a mans world of law as depicted here in the january 1948 issue of glamour. Then known as the magazine for the girl with the job. Glamour did not interfere with grit. By the time she retired in 1972, bessie 72, bessie had directed the preparation and review of approximately 600 Supreme Court and appellate briefs with an additional 150 petitions for review. Was no great orator but she engaged the justices who respected her meticulous preparation and encyclopedic knowledge of the fair standards for labor act, and she was able to employ humor, something not often done with success at the Supreme Court. In this 1955 audio clip, you will hear her spar with the justice where she successfully argued that battery plant workers whose jobs involve contact with toxic chemicals had the right to the wages before the time they spent showering and changing clothes. Although you may not be able to hear everything hes saying you will hear the justices annoying and congress for imposing on the court what he considered it to be undue burdens of interpreting the act, an annoyance that he frequently redirected. [inaudible] [inaudible] but after all there are 400 or 500 people they had to get agreement on, which is enough. Im sure. I dont mean to tell you the language you need to make clear. In this clip, you will hear how comfortable she was with the justices threw been her questions and dissecting the argument and you will hear her having fun with the way Justice Whittaker worded one of the questions. This is an opportunity i would like to go on to show the other. Do you stand before the justice . I dont follow on the either. [laughter] she won the case with the justice providing the dissent. As for the justice despite the banbanter you heard in the prior clips they enjoyed a cordial relationship outside of the courtroom of. For bessie who pleases me more often than i through no fault of mine. In the early 1960s, she decided to pursue a federal judgeship is a particular pursuit given the fact that there were only two women federal judges in the country, but with enthusiastic support from congress, the courts and the Labor Department, her name was considered by lbj himself. It isnt clear what the affair was i in that position but she faced other hurdles, one staffer criticized the fashion forward appearance, and another opined that her age would tend to preclude her from consideration by 1968 bessie had been passed over for 15 federal vacancies all filled by men, seven older than she was. The Silver Lining is that she remained at the Labor Department, promoted in 1963 to the associate solicitor for trial litigation and appeals and she developed the strategies and personally argued the first appeal and equal pay act and the age discrimination in employment act. By the time she retired in 1872 she oversaw the filing of the 300 equal pay act lawsuits covering over 4 million for nearly 18,000 employees earning the title of the nations number one fighter for equal pay for women. This is harder than a powerpoint. One such battle perhaps most significant one commentator likened the board of education. To overrule the trial court and establish a precedent that remains in existence today at work need only be substantially equal. They sought review from the court and you will hear next at her retirement at 1972 describing what happened next. After th after the argument was terrorized into the decision which sent us sweeping in scope i distinctly saw the footnote. [laughter] and counsel for the other side. It was an opportunity in the court and she suggested maybe we shouldnt oppose to the Supreme Court for this issue. We didnt think there was any way in the world we were going to get a decision. And i was by no means short of this terrorizing the circuit although there are other speakers that can address the point. [laughter] i figured the way to deal with the problem i leaned back and said oppose. [laughter] she didnt want anyone else to argue with the Supreme Court if she could. And that dinner the chief justice was the guest speaker. He credited her with having to put the flesh and on the bare bones of the act that would have been wholly inadequate without the implementation for the courtrooms in the land. Its hard to top the chief justice said so weve offered this one concluding comment before taking questions. Fair label lawyers refers literally to the new deal legislation she shepherded through the court. There were the opportunities that influential supporters afforded her use of feminine charms and nonconforming personal life. For me the title also represents a challenge that i pose on my style of on myself and telling her remarkable story. I hope theyve succeeded. Thank you for your attention. [applause] in the time remaining i would be happy to answer a few questions if you will step up to the microphone. Could use a a little more about the home and with sustained it for so many years and still sustains it . It was a byproduct of the new deal legislation. The Social Security act made it possible to have some sort of welfare and keep kids at home and coupled with new notions, developing notions that children should be kept in families as opposed to institutions. But the orphanage transformed as i said to a social Service Agency that just celebrated its 160th anniversary and continues to serve children from throughout the deep south. The orphanage was founded in 1866 at the impetus of the yellow fever epidemic the worst in the nations history. Its been sustained throughout all the years and supported throughout the deep south much like as it was when she lived there from 1913 to 1925. Her siblings also did well. I dont want to talk about how many overachievers were remarkably produced by this institution that was run more like teenagereligious boarding n the notion of an orphanage. Her older sister came back to the orphanage after she received her nursing degree and was employed as a nurse in the home and many people im interviewing today remember her as a nurse that cared for them. Her brother also went to tulane and got a degree in business and in 1930 attended dartmouth and attended a career in retail that took them. [inaudible] she died at the age of 87 and after she retired bush got to fulfill her dreams which were to teach law and also to be a judge. She taught a course at George Washington university and also for about ten years served as an arbitrator in labor cases, so she came close to aspiration. Thank you so much for your attention. [applause] to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer. Its hard to say what the list will be because i am a spontaneous book reader and usually i have a couple of them going at one time and i will run across an article and say ive got to take a look at that point so its really never planned but a been reading a book now that i havent read since i was in college back when i was studying the art of motorcycle maintenance which i was drawn to because im a passionate motorcyclist. I plan to do a whole lot of that if i can this summer. The book is and is really about motorcycles it is a philosophical book and i love philosophy and think to have a masters in philosophy and it is an interest of mine. I remember being taken by that book in the late 1970s, so its time to pick it up and read it again about a mans journey across the country but then gets in depth in thindepth in the Rh Technology and the broader discussion about the philosophical issues in the late 70s and im reading it because im going to get across michigan motorcycle ride. Im going to be doing town Hall Meetings into some of the counties in michigan going to be at coffee shops and at the town Hall Meetings and people can join me for part of the ride if they like going from town to town so its time to pick that up. The book im reading right now is by mr. Edward wilson and the social conquests which talks about a humans journey and development over the years and how individual selection forms for br in talks about how societies are constructed as a result i just ordered the meaning of human existence which is a capstone and dont we all want another meeting of human existence, so im looking forward to reading the continuation of the social conquests. Im sure there will be other topics that are going to pop up and keep me breathing. Thank you all for coming and for your patience. Iif youve not yet purchased a copy there are still Copies Available at the front counter. After the author is done
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.