Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

132 // NANCY J.WEISS
The Crisis, who ultimately left the Association in a conflict over the management
and financing of the magazine and, more broadly, the basic philosophy and program
of the organization. 27
Spingarn handed the chairmanship over to the Black physician Louis T.
Wright when his term ended in 1935 but continued as president until his death
in 1939 (he was succeeded by his brother, Arthur B. Spingarn). The following
year, Du Bois dedicated his autobiography, Dusk of Dawn, to Joel Spingarn 's
memory. "Scholar and Knight" was the way Du Bois described him — "one of
those vivid, enthusiastic but clear-thinking idealists which from age to age the
Jewish race has given the world. " 2S
The Crisis, who ultimately left the Association in a conflict over the management
and financing of the magazine and, more broadly, the basic philosophy and program
of the organization. 27
Spingarn handed the chairmanship over to the Black physician Louis T.
Wright when his term ended in 1935 but continued as president until his death
in 1939 (he was succeeded by his brother, Arthur B. Spingarn). The following
year, Du Bois dedicated his autobiography, Dusk of Dawn, to Joel Spingarn's
memory. "Scholar and Knight" was the way Du Bois described him—"one of
those vivid, enthusiastic but clear-thinking idealists which from age to age the
Jewish race has given the world." 2S
//
The NAACP's legal activities became the major vehicle through which Jews
shaped the programmatic work of the Association. Beginning in 1913, Arthur
Spingarn and his law partner, Charles H. Studin, both members of the NAACP
board, took up the organization's legal work, which they handled, on a volunteer
basis, from their office in Manhattan. Roy Wilkins later described Arthur
Spingarn as "the Association's entire 'legal department' for virtually a quarter of
a century." 29
As chairman of the legal committee, Spingarn was responsible for overseeing
the cases that provided the NAACP's earliest victories in the courts: Guinn v,
United States (1915), in which the Supreme Court declared Oklahoma's "grandfather
clause" unconstitutional, and Buchanan v. Warley (1917), in which the Court
struck down a municipal residential segregation ordinance in Louisville,
Kentucky. In the 1920s, the centrality of the legal committee work put Spingarn
in a position "to play a more crucial role" in the ongoing business of the NAACP
"than any other Board member, white or Black." Spingarn frequently attended
staff meetings, and he was a trusted adviser to the NAACP secretary, James
Weldon Johnson, and the assistant secretary, Walter White. With the salaried
executive staff assuming more responsibility for the operations of the Association
than they had in the 1910s, Spingarn coordinated the legal program with White,
who served as the liaison between the staff and the board on legal matters.
Spingarn "advised which cases should be selected"; White, working closely with
him, "screened requests for legal aid, handled negotiations with local lawyers, and
carried out much of the [legal] committee's routine business." 30
The NAACP's legal activities became the major vehicle through which Jews
shaped the programmatic work of the Association. Beginning in 1913, Arthur
Spingarn and his law partner, Charles H. Stuclin, both members of the NAACP
board, took up the organization's legal work, which they handled, on a volunteer
basis, from their office in Manhattan. Roy Wilkins later described Arthur
Spingarn as "the Association's entire 'legal department' for virtually a quarter of
a century."
The lawyers who served on the legal committee from the 1910s through the
1930s included a number of prominent Jews in addition to Spingarn: Morris L.
Ernst, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Garfield Hays, Louis Marshall, and James
Marshall. Members of the committee advised on strategy, participated in the
framing of briefs, and argued cases in the federal courts. The heavy reliance on
prominent white attorneys was partly a matter of strategy, since the Association
obviously benefited from the experience and connections they brought to the
29
As chairman of the legal committee, Spingarn was responsible for overseeing
the cases that provided the NAACP's earliest victories in the courts: Guinn v.
United States (1915), in which the Supreme Court declared Oklahoma's "grandfather
clause" unconstitutional, and Buchanan v. Warley (1917), in which the Court
struck down a municipal residential segregation ordinance in Louisville,
Kentucky. In the 1920s, the centrality of the legal committee work put Spingarn
in a position "to play a more crucial role" in the ongoing business of the NAACP
"than any other Board member, white or Black." Spingarn frequently attended
staff meetings, and he was a trusted adviser to the NAACP secretary, James
Weldon Johnson, and the assistant sectetary, Walter White. With the salaried
executive staff assuming more responsibility for the operations of the Association
than they had in the 1910s, Spingarn coordinated the legal program with White,
who served as the liaison between the staff and the board on legal matters.
Spingarn "advised which cases should be selected"; White, working closely with
him, "screened requests for legal aid, handled negotiations with local lawyers, and
carried out much of the [legal] committee's routine business." 30
The lawyers who served on the legal committee from the 1910s through the
1930s included a number of prominent Jews in addition to Spingarn: Morris L.
Ernst, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Garfield Hays, Louis Marshall, and James
Marshall. Members of the committee advised on strategy, participated in the
framing of briefs, and argued cases in the federal courts. The heavy reliance on
prominent white attorneys was partly a matter of strategy, since the Association
obviously benefited from the experience and connections they brought to the