A Bridge to Justice
The Life of Franklin H. Williams
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Documents the life of a gifted African American leader whose contributions were pivotal to the movement for social justice and racial equality
Franklin Hall Williams was a visionary and trailblazer who devoted his life to the pursuit of civil rights—not through acrimony and violence and hatred but through reason and example. A Bridge to Justice sheds new light on this practical, pragmatic bridge-builder and brilliant, complex individual whose life reflected the opportunities and constraints of an intellectually elite Black man in the twentieth century.
Franklin H. Williams was considered a “bridge” figure, someone whose position outside the limelight allowed him to navigate both Black and white circles, span the more turbulent racial waters below, and persuade people to see the world in a new way. During his prolific lifetime, he was a civil rights leader, lawyer, diplomat, organizer of the Peace Corps, United Nations representative, foundation president, and associate of Thurgood Marshall on some of the seminal civil liberties cases of the past hundred years, though their relationship was so fraught with tension that Marshall had Williams sent to California. He worked in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, served as a diplomat, and became an exceptionally persuasive advocate for civil rights. Even after enduring the segregated Army, suffering cruel discrimination, and barely escaping a murderous lynch mob eager to make him pay for zealously representing three innocent Black men falsely accused of rape, Franklin was not a hater. He believed that Americans, in general, were good people who were open to reason and, in their hearts, sympathetic to fairness and justice.
Dr. Enid Gort, an anthropologist and Africanist who conducted hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with Williams, his family, friends, colleagues, and compatriots, and John M. Caher, a professional writer and legal journalist, have co-written an exhaustively researched and scrupulously documented account of this civil rights champion’s life and impact. His story is an object lesson to help this nation heal and advance through unity rather than tribalism.
The struggle for civil rights is not the work of any one individual, any one group, or any one era. Rather it's a continuum, a very long chain in which different people play different roles in bridging that great divide. A Bridge to Justice examines the role of Franklin H. Williams as both foot soldier and architect in the fight for racial justice. His reasoned, persuasive approach changed lives and changed history. Scrupulously researched, objectively presented and compellingly written, A Bridge to Justice is a major and timely contribution to the literature of the civil rights movement.---Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
A Bridge to Justice is an engaging narrative that reveals as much about our American history, during its period of racial maturity, as it does about the life of one of America's true heroes.---Hon. Sol Wachtler, former Chief Judge, New York State
A Bridge to Justice is an invaluable biography of an African American leader, Franklin H. Williams, who certainly should be remembered. Intelligent, shrewd, and brave, he brought sophisticated yet vigorous direction to an important chapter of the Civil Rights struggle. Enid Gort and John Caher deserve our praise and thanks for this striking book.---Arnold Rampersad, author of The Life of Langston Hughes (Volume I & II) and Ralph Ellison: A Biography
John Caher (Author)
John M. Caher is the author or co-author of seven books and the principal writer of a PBS documentary on Franklin H. Williams, A Bridge to Justice. Mr. Caher has degrees from Syracuse University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His reporting has garnered more than twenty awards, including prestigious honors from the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Erie County Bar Association.
Enid Gort (Author)
Enid Gort, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and Africanist. Her articles have appeared in numerous academic journals, including the Journal of African Studies and Social Science and Medicine. She was a consultant on, and appeared in, an award-winning PBS documentary on Ambassador Williams. Dr. Gort holds a degree in education from Kean College and a master’s and doctorate degrees from Columbia University.
Preface | ix
Note from the Authors | xiii
Introduction | 1
1 Roots | 7
2 Coming of Age | 17
3 An “Ole Lady” at Lincoln | 31
4 The Real World | 39
5 The American Veterans Committee | 52
6 Civil Rights Lawyer | 63
7 In the Courts | 74
8 Legal Lynching | 91
9 Passion and Power Plays | 110
10 California Deliverance | 122
11 The Washington Years | 145
12 After Washington | 165
Epilogue | 183
Acknowledgments | 191
Notes | 193
Index | 219
