In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

117 chapter twelve The Great Writ Tuttle’s confirmation hearings were typical of the times. Seats on the circuit courts of appeals were understood to “belong” to certain states. If that state’s senators belonged to the president’s party, they would be consulted about appointments and their preferences weighted heavily. If they belonged to the opposition party, civility indicated that their opinion be formally sought by the committee—but it was of little import. Neither of the senators from Georgia was a Republican; for that matter, none of Georgia’s representatives in the House were Republican. As time wore on, Tuttle would realize how fortunate that was. In difficult times, and there would be difficult times, no one could claim that Tuttle owed him anything or that Tuttle had let him down. No one could knock on Tuttle’s door and attempt to collect on a political debt. The hearings were also typical in that little about Tuttle’s career as an attorney was explored. It was evident that he had been a successful lawyer, and that was enough for the committee. His heroic service in World War II was a bonus. No doubt the committee thought they were considering a fairly typical Ivy League–educated corporate attorney. A closer look might have surprised them and alarmed their southern colleagues in Congress. Tuttle had much closer ties to black professionals than was customary at the time, and these relationships flowed from several sources. His work on behalf of John Downer in the 1930s had served to introduce him to A. T. Walden, the dean of the Atlanta black bar. His work building the Republican Party in Georgia had even broader impact. Barred from the white Democratic Party, black Georgians had joined the only party available to them. In the 1940s Republican Party meetings were a rare instance of interracial gatherings. Through those meetings, Tuttle came to know the leaders of the black community in Atlanta, among them Dr. Benjamin Mays. In 1950 Dr. Mays had invited Tuttle to join the board of trustees of 118 « chapter twelve Morehouse College; Tuttle accepted gratefully, and in short order he also became a member of the board of trustees of Atlanta University, Spelman College, and the Interdenominational Theological Center—all black institutions .1 In 1982 he publicly thanked Dr. Mays for “attitudes and actions of his that were of untold value to me and I hope to the society we both sought to serve” and for bringing him “in fairly frequent contact with exceptional people whom, under the custom of the times, I would probably never have met.”2 The members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary might also have been surprised at the extent to which Tuttle had handled constitutional, not corporate, matters on a pro bono basis. In addition to his mighty efforts on behalf of John Downer, he had handled two major habeas corpus cases, both of which resulted in landmark opinions. In the first, he represented Angelo Herndon, a young black man who when only nineteen years old had helped organize a multiracial protest of the city of Atlanta’s decision to cut off relief funding. It was 1932, and the circumstances could not have been more dire. Atlanta, like the rest of the country, suffered mightily in the Great Depression. The Emergency Relief Committee, the only source of support for many of the four thousand families it served, had run out of money. The county government had slashed salaries, some, including those of the district attorney and superior court judges, by as much as 25 percent, but the money saved was pledged to reduce the deficit, not to provide relief. Many wage earners were suffering, albeit not as much as the unemployed; still, the county commission had resisted raising taxes.3 Leftists, communists, and other activists in the Atlanta area formed the Unemployed Council. The voice of the dispossessed, they worked hard at assisting the unemployed to find work and assistance. When the Emergency Relief Committee was forced to announce that it was closing its doors, they decided to take direct action. Angelo Herndon and his colleagues prepared and distributed pamphlets calling for a rally at the Fulton County Courthouse. On June 30, 1932, some one thousand desperate people , black and white, gathered. The stunned county commissioners met with a small delegation of unemployed white workers and barred black demonstrators from the meeting. Then they promised an appropriation of $6,000 to buy groceries for families...

Share