Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 6 P5 doc

National League in the 1890s and, after the
turn of the century, the influential author
and activist W. E. B. Du Bois. The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (
NAACP), established in 1909, became the
most powerful force for the repeal of Jim Crow
laws during the next half century. The NAACP
fought numerous battles in two important
arenas: the court of public opinion and the
courts of law.
At first, legal progress came slowly. In a
series of decisions in the 1940s, the U.S.
Supreme Court began to dismantle individual
Jim Crow laws and practices. The Court ruled
that political parties could not exclude voters
from primary elections on the basis of race
(Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649, 64 S. Ct. 757,
88 L. Ed. 987 [1944]). It ruled that black
passengers on interstate buses need not follow
the segregation laws of the states through which
those buses passed (Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S.
373, 66 S. Ct. 1050, 90 L. Ed. 1317 [1946]). It
also held that the judiciary could no longer
enforce private agreements—called restrictive
covenants—that excluded ownership or occu-
pancy of property based on race (Shelley v.
Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 68 S. Ct. 836, 92 L. Ed. 1161
[1948]).
By 1950, legal changes were coming in
droves. The Court decided in favor of black

student Heman Marion Sweatt concerning his
appeal for entrance to the University of Texas
Law School. In Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629,
70 S. Ct. 848, 94 L. Ed. 1114 (1950), the Court
ruled that the educational opportunities offered
to white and black law students by the state of
Texas were not substantially equal, and that
the
EQUAL PROTECTION Clause of the FOURTEENTH
AMENDMENT
required that Sweatt be admitted to
classes with white students at the University of
Texas law school. Four years later came the
Court’s most significant decision affecting Jim
Crow:
BROWN V . BOARD OF EDUCATION, 347 U.S. 483,
74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954). Over-
turning the precedent that had existed since Plessy
in 1896, the Court in Brown decreed unconsti-
tutional the policy of separate-but-equal educa-
tional facilities for blacks and whites.
Brown marked a turning point in the battle
against the institution of segregation that Jim
Crow laws had created. It was not the death
knell, however. Much remained to be done,
not only to topple legal restrictions but also to
remove the barriers of prejudice and violence
that stood in the way of full integration. The
final blows were administered by the civil rights
movement, whose boycotts, sit-ins, and lawsuits

continued over the next two decades. By the
mid-1960s the last vestiges of legal segregation
were ended by a series of federal laws, including
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A.
§ 2000a et seq.), the
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
(42 U.S.C.A. § 1971 et seq.), and the
FAIR
HOUSING ACT OF
1968 (42 U.S.C.A. § 3601 et seq.).
FURTHER READINGS
Chafe, William H., Robert Korstad, and Raymond Gavins,
eds. 2003. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans
Tell about Life In The Segregated South. New York: New
Press.
Quarles, Benjamin. 1996. The Negro in the Making of
America. New York: Touchstone.
White, Tony. ND. “The Origin of Jim Crow.” Afro-American
Newspapers Balck History Month Supplements. Available
online at />whoisjc.html; website home page: oam.
org (accessed August 3, 2009).
CROSS REFERENCES
Civil Rights; Equal Protection; Ku Klux Klan; Ku Klux
Klan Act; School Desegregation.
J.N.O.V.
See JUDGMENT NOTWITHSTANDING THE VERDICT.
JOBBER
A merchant, middle person, or wholesaler who
purchases goods from a manufacturer in lots or
bulk and resells the goods to a consumer, or to a

retailer, who then sells them to a consumer. One
who buys and sells on the stock exchange or who
deals in stocks, shares, and securities.
In the law of
TRADEMARKS and trade names,
the term jobber refers to an intermediary who
receives goods from manufacturers and sells
them to retailers or consumers. In this context
a jobber may acquire a trademark and affix it
to the goods, even though the jobber did not
manufacture the products.
In the law governing monopolies, jobbers
are referred to as wholesalers. This body of law
involves
PRICE-FIXING scenarios, in which, for
example, a manufacturer enters into contracts
with numerous wholesalers, wherein the latter
agree to resell the manufacturer’s product at
prices set by the manufacturer. Antitrust laws
also concern scenarios where, for example, a
patent owner who deals through wholesalers
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
28 J.N.O.V.
restricts the resale of the patented article to a
specified territory, thereby limiting righ tful
competition between wholesalers.
JOHN DOE OR JANE DOE
A fictitious name used for centuries in the law
when a specific person is not known by name.
The name John Doe can be used in a

hypothetical situation for the purpose of argu-
ment or illustration. For example, the action of
ejectment may be used in some states by a
person who has possession of a parcel of land
but wishes to clear up some doubt concerning
his or her right to hold it. Rather than wait until
someone else sues to challenge his or her right
to the land, that person may bring an action of
ejectment against a fictitious
DEFENDANT, some-
times called a
CASUAL EJECTOR. John Doe has
traditionally been used for the name of this
nonexistent party, but he has also been named
Goodtitle.
John Doe may be used for a specific person
who is known but cannot be identified by name.
The form Jane Doe is often used for anonymous
females, and Richard Roe is often used when
more than one unknown or fictitious per son is
named in a lawsuit.
The tradition of fictitious names comes
from the Romans, who also had names that they
commonly used for fictitious parties in lawsuits.
The two names most commonly used were
Titius and Seius.
v
JOHNSON, ANDREW
ANDREW JOHNSON ascended to the U.S. presidency
after the

ASSASSINATION of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.He
was the seventeenth president and the first to
undergo an impeachment trial.
Johnson was born December 29, 1808, in
Raleigh, North Carolina. Little is known of his
early life. His ancestry is usually traced only to
the family of his father, Jacob Johnson, who
raised his family in Raleigh and served as the
city’s
CONSTABLE and sexton, was a porter to the
state bank, and was a respected captain in
the
MILITIA of North Carolina. He was viewed as
a hero after saving two men from drowning in a
pond outside Raleigh. He died of health com-
plications only a year later, leaving the Johnson
family in poverty.
From the age of ten to the age of 17,
Johnson worked as an apprentic e to a Raleigh
tailor, J. J. Selby. Shortly after, he settled in
Greeneville, Tennessee, where he opened his
own tailor shop. Before he reached the ag e of
19, he had met Eliza McCardle, a respected
teacher in Greeneville, whom he married on
May 17, 1827.
Andrew Johnson.
THE LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS
Andrew Johnson 1808–1875
❖

❖
1808 Born,
Raleigh, N.C.
◆
1825 Moved to
Greeneville,
Tenn. and
set up a
tailor shop
◆
1830
Elected
mayor of
Greeneville
1861–65
U.S. Civil War
▼▼
▼▼
18001800
18501850
18751875
19001900
18251825
1835–43
Participated
in Tenn.
legislature
1887 Tenure of
Office Act repealed
1812–14

War of 1812
1843–53
Served in
U.S. House
1853–57 Served as
governor of Tenn.
1868 Acquitted in Senate impeachment trial
1865–69 Served as seventeenth U.S. president
1864 Became vice president for Lincoln's second term
1865 Lincoln assassinated
◆
◆
1857
Elected
to U.S.
Senate
1875 Elected to U.S.
Senate; died, Carter
Station, Tenn.
1867 Congress passed
the Tenure of Office Act
◆◆
◆
◆
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JOHNSON, ANDREW 29
Johnson’s wife encouraged his aspirations
to become politically active, and Johnson turned
his tailor shop into a center for men throughout
Greeneville to debate and practice their oratory.

In 1828 Johnson was overwhelmingly elected
city alderman. Two years later his supporters
elected him mayor. From 1835 to 1843 he
served in the Tennessee legislature. For the
next ten years he served in the U.S. House of
Representatives. He returned to Tennessee in
1853 and was elected governor of the state.
When his term expired in 1857 , he became a
member of the U.S. Senate, where he served
until 1862. He was the only southern senator
who refused to resign during the Civil War.
Johnson attracted the attention of President
Lincoln. In 1862 Lincoln appointed the Ten-
nessee congressman to serve as military governor
of the state. After Johnson effectively managed
the state throughout the Civil War, Lincoln
selected him to run for
VICE PRESIDENT in the
1864 election. The pro-Union ticket of Lincoln
and Johnson was victorious.
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865,
and Johnson assumed the duties of president on
April 15. He had been left with the daunting
task of assimilating the former confederacy of
southern states into the United States. Johnson
sought to overlook the secession of the South.
He granted many pardons and allowed southern
politicians to restore oppressive practices to-
ward former slaves, such as forcing them to give
land back to their old masters and depriving

them of the right to vote. A group of con-
gressional Republicans, led by Thaddeus Stevens,
a representative from Pennsylvania, opposed
Johnson’s practices. Against Johnson’s wishes,
the South was put under military rule. The
CIVIL
RIGHTS
Act of 1866, passed in spite of Johnson’s
veto, granted blacks the right to vote.
In 1867 Congress passed the
TENURE OF
OFFICE ACT
(14 Stat. 430), also over Johnson’s
veto. This act declared that the president could
not, without the Senate’s permission, remove
from federal office any official whose appoint-
ment had been approved by the Senate. In
August 1867 Johnson refused to follow the
Tenure Act when he request ed the removal of
Secretary of War
EDWIN M. STANTON.Hedidso
on the ground that Stant on had conspired with
radical Republicans against the president.
In removing Stanton from his position,
Johnson aroused the wrath of even moderate
Republicans in Congress. On February 24, 1868,
the House passed resolutions to
IMPEACH John-
son for
HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. By early

March, the House had drawn up 12
ARTICLES OF
IMPEACHMENT
against Johnson. Eight of these
concerned his alleged violations of the Tenure
of O ffice Act. The ninth alleged a lesser charge,
that he had overstepped his boundaries in
suborning a U.S. general. The tenth and eleventh
articles accused Johnson of defaming Congress
in public speeches. A twelfth and final article,
dubbed the omnibus article, was intended to
induce senators who migh t have qualms about
specific charges against Johnson to find him
guilty on general grounds.
Under the Constitution at least two-thirds
of the Senate must vote to impeach the
president. In Johnson’s case this meant that 36
senators would have to vote for impeachment.
The defense knew that vote would have to come
from the Senate’s 42 Republican members—the
Senate’s 10 Democrats and 2 Johnsonites were
bound to support his
ACQUITTAL. Johnson’s
lawyers were confident that if they could appeal
to the senses of moderate Republicans—whom
the defense presumed were loyal to the restora-
tion of the Union—the impeachment effort
would fail.
On May 16 and May 26, 1868, the Senate
voted 35–19 against Johnson on three of the

articles of impeachment. By only one vote less
than the two-thirds majority necessary to
remove him, Johnson was acquitted of the most
serious charges. The Senate subsequently ad-
journed its court, and Johnson was allowed to
finish his term. His presidency ended in 1869,
and he returned to Tennessee.
The people of Tennessee welcomed Johnson
home and elected him to the U.S. Senate in
1875. However, he died soon after the election,
on July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tennessee.
In 1887 the Tenure of Office Act was repealed.
In 1926 the Supreme Court rendered an ex post
facto (retroactive) judgment declaring the act
unconstitutional (272 U.S. 52, 47 S. Ct. 21, 71
L. Ed. 160 1926).
Most scholars and histori ans have con-
cluded that the impeachment charges against
Andrew Johnson were motivated by partisan
politics and that removing Johnson on any one
of the charges would have set a dangerous
precedent. In effect Congressional Republicans
were trying to use impeachment as a political
AMENDMENTS TO
THE
CONSTITUTION
OUGHT NOT BE TOO
FREQUENTLY
MADE
; … [IF]

CONTINUALLY
TINKERED WITH IT
WOULD LOSE ALL ITS
PRESTIGE AND
DIGNITY
, AND THE
OLD INSTRUMENT
WOULD BE LOST
SIGHT OF
ALTOGETHER IN A
SHORT TIME
.
—ANDREW JOHNSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
30 JOHNSON, ANDREW
tool to overcome Johnson’s repeated attempts
to impede their legislative efforts. However, the
Founding Fathers, by devising a constitutional
system of checks and balances in which the
three co-equal branches of government are each
delegated certain specific, enumerated authority,
tried to prevent any one branch from acquiring
too much power and wielding it in a despotic
fashion. Had Congress been successful in
removing Johnson, impeachment might have
become a favored political weapon against
future U.S. presidents, thereby severely weaken-
ing the presidency and removing any incentive
for the House and Senate to cooperate and
compromise with the

EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
Many scholars and historians have also
concluded that the Johnson impeachment
proceedings helped narrow the class of im-
peachable offenses. The U.S. Constitution
provides that the “President … of the United
States, shall be removed from Office on
Impeachment for … high Crimes and Mis-
demeanors,” but fails to define what those terms
mean. U.S. Const. art. II § 4. The Johnson
impeachment proceedings, in the minds of
many observers, have come to stand for the
proposition that before an offense may be
deemed an impeachable offense it must not
only constitute a crime but the crime itself must
be of a serious or grave nature. However, this
precedent only advanced the discussion so far,
as it failed to determine how serious or grave the
criminal activity must be for it to be considered
an impeachable offense, a question that re-
curred throughout the impeachment proceed-
ings against
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, who was
acquitted by the Senate on charges that he
committed the crimes of
PERJURY and OBSTRUC-
TION OF JUSTICE
to conceal his relationship with
former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
FURTHER READINGS

Castel, Albert. 1979. The Presidency of Andrew Johnson.
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
Field, P. F. December 1, 2000. “The Impeachment of
Andrew Johnson.” Choice Magazine.
Foner, Eric, and Olivia Mahoney. 1997. America’s Recon-
struction: People and Politics after the Civil War. Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press.
Horowitz, Robert F. 1986. The Great Impeacher: A Political
Biography of James M. Ashley. Lanham, MD: Univ. Press
of America.
Jones, James S. 2007. Life of Andrew Johnson, Seventeenth
President of the United States. Reprint. Whitefish, MT:
Kessinger.
Lomask, Milton. 1973. Andrew Johnson: President on Trial.
New York: Octagon.
Rehnquist, William H. 1999. Grand Inquests: The Historic
Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President
Andrew Johnson. New York: Harper.
Simpson, Brooks D. 1987. Advice after Appomattox: Letters to
Andrew Johnson, 1865–1866. Edited by Leroy P. Graf
and John Muldowney. Knoxville, TN: Univ. of
Tennessee Press.
Stalcup, Brenda, ed. 1995. Reconstruction: Opposing View-
points. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven.
CROSS REFERENCES
Assassination; Civil Rights Acts; Ex Post Facto Laws;
Lincoln, Abraham; Stanton, Edwin McMasters; Tenure of
Office Act; Veto.
v
JOHNSON, FRANK MINIS, JR.

As a federal judge in Alabama during the tumu-
ltuous CIVIL RIGHTS era, Frank Minis Johnson Jr.
earned an outstanding reputation. Serving on the
U.S. district court for the Middle District of
Alabama (1955–79) and the
U.S. COURTS OF APPEALS
for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits (1979–91),
Johnson was a strong, if sometimes cautious,
defender of constitutional liberties for all U.S.
citizens, regardless of race or social status.
Johnson was one of only a few judges to
apply vigorously the U.S. Supreme Court’s
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION decision in BROWN V.
BOARD OF EDUCATION, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct.
686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954). He made history in
1956 when he and another judge overturne d a
Montgomery, Alabama, ordinance requiring
segregation on city buses (Browder v. Gayle,
142 F. Supp. 707 [M.D. Ala.]). That decision gave
the nascent
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT an encourag-
ing victory and helped catapult
MARTIN LUTHER
KING
Jr., who had led a boycott of Montgomery
buses, to the forefront as a civil rights leader.
During the 1970s Johnson issued court orders
requiring sweeping changes in Alabama’s mental
health institutions and prisons. Although
his judicial decisions brought death threats to

himself and his family from whites who opposed
integration, Johnson remained faithful to his
convictions regarding individual rights.
Johnson was born October 30, 1918, in
Delmar, a town in northern Alabama’ s Winston
County. The county, in which Johnson spent
his youth, was a Republican stronghold in an
overwhelmingly Democratic state; in fact, it had
attempted to remain neutral during the Civil
War. Johnson’s father, Frank Minis Johnson
Sr. served as one of the few Republicans in the
Alabama state legislature. Johnson studied law
at the University of Alabama and graduated in
THE SELMA-TO-
M
ONTGOMERY
MARCH
…
DEMONSTRATED
SOMETHING ABOUT
DEMOCRACY
: THAT IT
CAN NEVER BE TAKEN
FOR GRANTED
; [IT]
ALSO SHOWED THAT
THERE IS A WAY IN
THIS SYSTEM TO GAIN
HUMAN RIGHTS
.

—FRANK M. JOHNSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JOHNSON, FRANK MINIS, JR. 31
the top of his class in 1943 with a bachelor
of laws degree . He gained admission to the
Alabama bar the following year.
Johnson distinguished himself during
WORLD
WAR II
while serving as an officer in the U.S.
Army. Wounded in the Normandy Invasion,
he received numerous decorations, including
the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster and the
Bronze Star. He left the military in 1946 and
returned to Alabama. Settling in Jasper, he
cofounded a law firm and quickly earned a
reputation as an outstanding defense lawyer.
In 1952 Johnson worked as a state manager
for the presidential campaign of Republican
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. After Eisenhower became
president the following year, he rewarded
Johnson with the post of U.S. attorney for
Alabama’s Northern District. In 1955, Eisen-
hower named Johnson to the U.S. District Court
for Alabama’s Middle District. At age 37,
Johnson was the country’syoungestfederal
judge. He became the court’s chief judge in 1966.
In 1956, shortly after taking his seat on the
bench, Johnson became involved in a formative
event of the civil rights movement. A year

earlier an African American woman named
ROSA
PARKS
had been arrested for violating a Mon-
tgomery ordinance requiring racial segregation
on the city’s buses. In response the African
American community organized a boycott of
the Montgomery bus system and nominated
King as its leader. In addition, the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (
NAACP) challenged the city ordinance in
court and eventually appealed the case to the
federal district court (Browder). Citing the U.S.
Supreme Court’s reasoning in Brown, Johnson
and Judge Richard T. Rives, members of a three-
judge panel, ruled that the Montgomery ordi-
nance violated the Due Process and
EQUAL
PROTECTION
Clauses of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.
The ruling was the first of many by Johnson,
either alone or as part of a three-judge panel, that
eliminated racial segregation in public accom-
modations such as parks, libraries, bus stations,
and airports during the 1950s and 1960s. In
many instances, Johnson’s decisions were the
first of their kind, earning him a national
reputation as a staunch defender of civil rights.
Johnson’s rulings in support of integration

often put him at odds with
GEORGE WALLACE,a
former law school classmate who served four
Frank M. Johnson.
AP IMAGES
▼▼
▼▼
Frank Minis Johnson Jr. 1918–1999
19501950
19751975
20002000
19251925
❖
◆
◆
1939–45
World War II
1914–18
World War I
1950–53
Korean War
1961–73
Vietnam War
◆
1918 Born,
Delmar, Ala.
◆
❖
◆
◆

2001 Defending
Constitutional
Rights published
posthumously
1999 Died,
Montgomery, Ala.
1995 Awarded Presidential
Medal of Freedom
1943–46
Served in
U.S. Army
1953 Appointed U.S. attorney general
for Alabama's Northern District
1955–79 Served on U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of Alabama
1965 Issued court
order allowing
Selma-to-
Montgomery
march to proceed
1966
Became
chief judge
of district
court
1985 Wrote opinion
striking down Georgia
anti-sodomy statute in
Hardwick v. Bowers
1981–91 Served on U.S.

Court of Appeals for
Eleventh Circuit
1979–81 Served on U.S. Court
of Appeals for Fifth Circuit
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
32 JOHNSON, FRANK MINIS, JR.
terms as Alabama’s governor (1963–67, 1971–
75, 1975–79, and 1983–87). Wallace and the
state of Alabama actively opposed the desegre-
gation decrees issued by the federal courts. In
response Johnson pioneered the use of injunc-
tions (court orders) to force the desegregation of
public schools and to monitor compliance with
court orders. Wallace and Johnson also clashed
in 1965 over King’s Selma-to-Montgomery
march for civil rights. After Wallace stopped
the march, Johnson issued a court order allowing
it to proceed. The march was later credited with
sparking passage of the
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF
1965 (42 U.S.C.A. § 1971). Because of the
sweeping effect of his judicial decisions on
Alabama society, Johnson was sometimes called
the “real” governor of Alabama.
Soon after the Selma march, Johnson tried a
celebrated case involving the
MURDER of VIOLA
LIUZZO
, a white civil rights worker who had been
shot to death while riding in her car with an

African American. Af ter an all-white jury
acquitted three
KU KLUX KLAN members of the
murder in state court, a federal case ag ainst the
men was brought in Johnson’s court. Johnson
skillfully maneuvered to avoid a deadlocked
jury, and the trial resulted in the conviction of
the Klan members for violation of the woman’s
civil rights.
Johnson’s rulings on voting rights cleared
the way for African Americans to vote on an
equal basis with whites. In several decisions
during the 1960s, Johnson developed the “freeze”
doctrine, by which African Americans were
allowed to vote as long as their qualifications
matched those of the least qualified white. The
doctrine was later incorporated into the Voting
Rights Act. In addition, Johnson outlawed the
POLL TAX and issued the first court order requiring
equitable apportionment of legislative seats.
Johnson also struck down a state law barring
blacks and women from juries, required that
court-appointed lawyers be paid, ordered signifi-
cant changes in Alabama’s property tax system,
and desegregated the state trooper force.
Johnson’s pro–civil rights decisions made
him many enemies. Opponents burned crosses
on the lawn of his Montgomery home, fire-
bombed his mother’s house, and sent hate
mail by the bagful. Many leading Montgomery

residents ostracized Johnson and his family.
After the civil rights era came to an end
in the late 1960s, Johnson continued to issue
decisions that had a broad and reforming effect
on Alabama society. Just as he had done with
school desegregation, Johnson used the judicial
injunction as an instrument of social reform.
He issued injunctions to remedy inhumane
conditions in mental hospitals (Wyatt v. Stick-
ney, 334 F. Supp. 1341 [M.D. Ala. 1971]) and
prisons (Newman v. Alabama, 349 F. Supp. 278
[M.D. Ala. 1972]; Pugh v. Locke, 406 F. Supp. 318
[M.D. Ala. 1976]). In both of these instances,
Johnson established a human rights committee
to implement and monitor his orders.
In 1977 President
JIMMY CARTER named
Johnson director of the
FEDERAL BUR EAU OF
INVESTIGATION
, but a heart condition prevented
Johnson from taking the job. Surgery improved
Johnson’s health, and he remained on the
federal bench. In 1979 Carter appointed John-
son to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Judicial Circuit; in 1981 redistricting made
him part of the Eleventh Circuit. In one notable
case from his tenure on the Eleventh
CIRCUIT
COURT

, Hardwick v. Bowers, 760 F.2d 1202 (11th
Cir. 1985), Johnson wrote an opinion declaring
that a Georgia
SODOMY statute (Georgia Code.
Ann. § 16-6-2 [1984]) violated constitutional
rights. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the
decision (Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106
S. Ct. 2841, 92 L. Ed. 2d 140 [1986]).
Johnson retired to senior status on the
Eleventh Circuit in 1991. He received many
honors and awards, including honorary doc-
torates of law from Notre Dame, Princeton,
Alabama, Boston, Yale, Mercer, and the Tuske-
gee Institute. He also received the
THURGOOD
MARSHALL
Award. In 1992 the government
renamed the federal courthouse in Montgomery
the
FRANK M. JOHNSON Jr. Federal Building and
U.S. Courthouse. And in 1995 President
BILL
CLINTON
awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
In presenting the award, Clinton noted John-
son’s “landmark decisions in the areas of
desegregation, voting rights, and civil liberties.”
In 1984 Johnson was awarded the Devitt
Distinguished Service to Justice Award, which is

administered by the American
JUDICATURE Soci-
ety. This award is named for Edward J. Devitt, a
former chief U.S. district judge for Minnesota.
It acknowledges the dedication and contribu-
tions to justice made by all federal judges, by
recognizing the specific achievements of one
judge who has contributed significantly to the
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JOHNSON, FRANK MINIS, JR. 33
profession. Johnson died on July 23, 1999, in
Montgomery.
CROSS REFERENCES
Gay and Lesbian Rights; Separate But Equal.
v
JOHNSON, JAMES WELDON
James Weldon Johnson was a key figure in the
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (
NAACP) between 1916 and 1930,
and helped transform that organization into the
leading African American
CIVIL RIGHTS advocacy
group in the United States. Johnson’s efforts as
NAACP field secretary greatly increased the
number of NAACP branches and members, and
his work as executive secretary during the 1920s
expanded the association’s lobbying, litigation,
fund-raising, and publicity campaigns. Johnson
was also a highly accomplished writer and played

a vital role in the African American literary
movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Johnson was born June 17, 1871, in
Jacksonville,Florida.Hisparents,JamesJohn-
son and Helen Louise Dillette Johnson, en-
couraged his pursuit of education, and he
graduated from Atlanta University in 1894. He
then took a job as principal at the Stanton
School in Jacksonville, where he established a
high school program.
He studied law with a white lawyer in his
spare time, and in 1898 was admitted to the
Florida bar. He also wrote lyrics for songs
composed by his brother, J. Rosamond John-
son. In 1900 the two wrote the song “Lift Every
Voice and Sing,” which later became known as
the “Negro National Anthem.” The two broth-
ers moved to New York in 1902 and went on to
become a highly successful songwriting team .
Johnson became involved in New York
politics. In 1904 he became treasurer of the
city’s Colored Republican Club, helping with
the campaign to reelect
THEODORE ROOSEVELT to
the presidency. On the recommenda tion of W.
E. B. Du Bois, an African American sch olar and
civil rights leader, Johnson was named U.S.
consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, in 1906.
Two years later he was appointed consul to
Corinto, Nicaragua. He remained in that posi-

tion until 1913, when he resigned. Johnson
James Weldon
Johnson.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
James Weldon Johnson 1871–1938
❖
◆
1871 Born,
Jacksonville,
Fla.
1900 Wrote "Lift Every Voice and
Sing" with his brother Rosamond
1894 Graduated from
Atlanta University
1906–13 Served
as U.S. consul
to Venezuela
and Nicaragua
1914–18
World War I
1938 Died,
Wiscasset, Me.
1861–65
U.S. Civil War
1934 Negro Americans,
What Now? published
1939–45
World War II
▼▼
▼▼

19001900
19251925
19501950
18501850
18751875
❖
◆
◆
1927 NAACP successfully argued Nixon v. Herndon
1913 The Autobiography of an
Ex-Colored Man published
◆◆◆
◆◆
1933 Along This Way, an
autobiography, published
1930 Resigned from NAACP to join
Fisk University faculty; Black
Manhattan published
1920 Became
executive secretary of
NAACP
1916–30
Active in
leadership
of NAACP
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
34 JOHNSON, JAMES WELDON
believed that the election of WOODROW WILSON,a
Democrat, to the presidency, as well as signifi-
cant racial prejudice, would interfere with his

advancement in the consular service. In 1910 he
married Grace Nail. The couple had no children.
Johnson returned to New York and in
1914 became an editorialist and columnist at
the New York Age newspaper. Two years later
he was offered a position as field secretary for
the NAACP, which was founded in 1909 to
improve the situation of African Americans. In
that office Johnson traveled widely and did
much to help the NAACP grow from 9,000
members in 1916 to 90,000 in 1920. Under
Johnson’s direction the number of branches
multiplied rapidly as well. In the South , where
NAACP activity had been weak, the number of
branches increased from 3 to 131. Johnson also
spoke widely on the subject of racial discrimi-
nation, and he organized NAACP protests. In
1917 he coordinated a silent march in New
York to protest
LYNCHING of African American s
and other forms of racial oppression. Through-
out his tenure at the NAACP, he rem ained
committed to keeping it an interracial organi-
zation, seeking the membership and aid of
whites as well as blacks.
By 1920 Johnson had risen to executive
secretary of the NAACP, the organization’s
highest leade rship position. Under his guidance
the NAACP publicized the continued lynching
of African Americans, which the organization

estimated had caused the death of 3,000 people
between 1889 and 1919. Johnson directed the
NAACP’s support of the 1921 Dyer antilynching
bill (which did not become law),
LABOR UNION
movements, and policies to improve living and
working conditions for African Americans. In
addition, Johnson issued an influential report
on the U.S. occupation of Haiti occurring at
that time. Furthe rmore, Johnson was a highly
successful fund-raiser.
Johnson’s leadership greatly increased the
NAACP’s influence on U.S. law. He helped
expand the organization’s campaigns to end laws
and practices that segregated African Americans
and denied them basic freedoms such as the
right to vote. Under Johnson’s leadership the
NAACP successfully argued Nixon v. Herndon,
273 U.S. 536, 47 S. Ct. 446, 71 L. Ed. 759 (1927),
before the Supreme Court. The decision held
that a whites-only
DEMOCRATIC PARTY primary
in Texas was unconstitutional, and marked a
significant step toward establishing equal voting
rights for African Americans.
In 1930 Johnson resigned from the NAACP
to become a professor of creative literature
and writing at Fisk University, in Nashville.
Johnson’s writings include The Autobiography
of an Ex-Colored Man (1913), a novel; three

volumes of poetry; Black Manhattan (1930), a
history of African Americans in New York;
Along This Way (1933), an autobiography; and
Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a treatise
on the situation of African Americans. He
edited three influential anthologies: The Book
of American Negro Poetry (1922), The Book of
American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The
Second Book of American Negro Spirituals
(1926), the last two with his brother.
Johnson received much recognition during
his lifetime, including honorary degrees from
Atlanta University and Howard University and
the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal (1925). He was
killed in a car accident in Wiscasset, Maine,
on June 26, 1938.
FURTHER READINGS
Fleming, Robert E. 1987. James Weldon Johnson. Boston:
Twayne.
Johnson, James Weldon. 2000. Along This Way: The Auto-
biography of James Weldon Johnson. New York: Da Capo.
Levy, Eugene. 1982. “James Weldon Johnson and the
Development of the NAACP.” In Black Leaders of the
Twentieth Century. Edited by August Meier and John
Hope Franklin. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.
v
JOHNSON, LYNDON BAINES
Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES
, serving from 1963 to 1969.

Like three other vice presidents in U.S. history,
he assumed the office following the
ASSASSINA-
TION
of the president. He took office November
22, 1963, after
JOHN F. KENNEDY was killed in
Dallas. Johnson’s administration was marked
by landmark changes in
CIVIL RIGHTS laws and
social welfare programs, yet political support
for him collapsed because of his escalation of
the
VIETNAM WAR.
Johnson was born August 27, 1908, near
Stonewall, Texas. He was raised in Johnson City,
Texas, which was named for his grandfather, who
had served in the Texas Legislature. Johnson’s
father, Sam Ealy Johnson, also served in the Texas
Legislature. Johnson graduated from Southwest
Texas State Teachers College in 1930 with a
teaching degree. He taught high school in
THE DWARFING,
WARPING,
DISTORTING
INFLUENCE WHICH
OPERATES UPON
EACH AND EVERY
COLOURED MAN IN
THE

UNITED
STATES … FORCES
[HIM] TO TAKE HIS
OUTLOOK ON ALL
THINGS
, NOT FROM
THE VIEW
-POINT OF A
CITIZEN
, OR MAN, OR
EVEN A HUMAN
BEING
, BUT FROM THE
VIEW
-POINT OF A
COLOURED MAN
.
—JAMES WELDON
JOHNSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JOHNSON, LYNDON BAINES 35
Houston, until 1931, when he became involved
with Democrat Richard M. Kleberg’s campaign
for the U.S. House of Representatives. Johnson
gave speeches and spoke to voters on Kleberg’s
behalf. When Kleberg was elected, he asked
Johnson to accompany him to Washington, D.C.,
as his secretary. Johnson agreed, and his political
career in Washington, D.C., was launched.
Johnson was not satisfied to be a secretary to

a congressman. He began making friends with
powerful Democrats, most notably Representa-
tive Sam Rayburn, of Texas. Rayburn, who
would soon become Speaker of the House, had
enormous influence. In 1935, after President
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT named him director of the
Texas division of the National Youth Adminis-
tration, Johnson used his connections to put
twelve thousand young people to work in public
service jobs and to help another eighteen
thousand go to college.
He quit this position in 1937 to run in a
special election for the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives in Texas’s Tenth Congressional
District. In his campaign he supported Roose-
velt’s policies, which came under heavy attack
by Johnson’s opponents. After Johnson was
elected, Roosevelt made a point of getting to
know him. Soon the two developed a long and
lasting friendship.
Johnson remained in the House of Repre-
sentatives until 1948, though he did spend a
brief period in the Navy during
WORLD WAR II.
He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1941, and lost to
Governor W. Lee O’Daniel by fewer than 1,400
votes. He ran again in 1948, this time against
Coke R. Stevenson, a former Texas governor.
Johnson won the 1948 Democratic primary
election by 87 votes, but Stevenson claimed that

election fraud had allowed Johnson supporters
to stuff the ballot box with votes from dead or
fictitious persons. A federal district court judge
ordered Johnson’s name removed from the final
election ballot pending an investigation of the
fraud charges. Johnson enlisted a group of
prominent Washington, D.C., attorneys, led by
ABE FORTAS, to overturn the order. The attorneys
convinced Justice
HUGO L. BLACK, of the U.S.
Supreme Court, to reverse the order. With his
name back on the ballot, Johnson went on to an
easy victory.
Lyndon B. Johnson.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Lyndon Baines Johnson 1908–1973
❖
❖
◆
1908 Born,
Stonewall, Texas
◆
1931 Began political
career working as U.S.
Rep. Kleberg's secretary
1914–18
World War I
1935 Appointed director of the Texas
division of the National Youth Administration
1961–73

Vietnam War
1939–45
World War II
1950–53
Korean War
▼▼
▼▼
19001900
19501950
19751975
19251925
◆◆
1968 Paris Peace talks began
1967 Appointed Thurgood
Marshall to U.S. Supreme Court
1955 Became Senate majority leader
1948–60 Served
in U.S. Senate
1973 Died, Stonewall,
Tex.; Vietnam peace
accords signed
◆
1937 Elected to U.S. House
1956 Refused to sign Southern Manifesto
1960–63 Served
as vice president
under Kennedy
1963–69 Served as U.S. president
◆◆ ◆
◆

1964 Signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law;
Gulf of Tonkin battle escalated U.S. involvement in
Vietnam War
1965 Signed Medicare and Voting
Rights Act of 1965 into law
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
36 JOHNSON, LYNDON BAINES
Johnson moved quickly to gain power and
influence in the Senate. Senator Richard
B. Russell, of Georgia, became his mentor in
the same way Sam Rayburn had been in the
1930s. In 1951 Johnson became the Democratic
whip, which required that he maintain party
discipline and encourage the attendance of
Democratic senators. Two years later he was
elected minority leader, at age 44 the youngest
member ever elected to that position. In 1955,
after the Democrats took control of the Senate,
he assumed the position of majority leader, the
most powerful position in that body.
As majority leader Johnson worked at
developing consensus with members from both
parties. During this period he became famous for
the “LBJ treatment,” where he would use clever
stratagems and steady persuasion to win reluctant
colleagues over to his side. He developed a
bipartisan approach with the administration of
Republican president
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER and
sought common ground. He sustained a setback

in 1955 when he suffered a heart attack, but
returned to government service later that year.
Johnson wanted to be president, and he
knew that opposing civil rights would destroy
his chances on a national level. He was one of
three Southern senators who refused to sign the
Southern Manifesto, a 1956 document that urged
the South to resist with all legal methods the
Supreme Court’s decision outlawing racially
segregated schools in
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCA-
TION
, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873
(1954). In 1957 he put through the Senate the
first civil rights bill in more than 80 years.
Senator John F. Kennedy, of Massachusetts,
won the Democratic presidential nomination in
1960 and named Johnson his vice presidential
running mate. Johnson helped Kennedy in the
southern states, and Kennedy won a narrow
victory over vice president
RICHARD M. NIXON.
As vice president under Kennedy, Johnson
performed numerous diplomatic missions and
presided over the National
AERONAUTICS and
Space Council and the President’s Committee
on Equal Employment Opportunities. When
Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Johnson
took the oath of office in Dallas. In the months

that followed, he concentrated on passing the
slain president’s legislative agenda. He proposed
a war-on-poverty program, helped pass a tax
cut, and oversaw the enactment of the landmark
Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A. § 2000a
et seq.). This act outlawed racial and other types
of discrimination in employment, education,
and public accommodations. Civil rights for all
persons was one part of Johnson’s vision of
what he called the
GREAT SOCIETY.
Johnson easily defeated conservative Repub-
lican senator
BARRY M. GOLDWATER in the 1964
presidential election. Under his administration
Congress in 1965 enacted the
MEDICARE bill (42
U.S.C.A. § 1395 et seq.), which provided free
supplementary health care for older perso ns as
part of their
SOCIAL SECURITY benefits. Johnson
also obtained large increases in federal aid to
education; established the Departments of
Transportation and of Housing and Urban
Development; and proposed the
VOTING RIGHTS
ACT OF
1965 (42 U.S.C.A. § 1971 et seq.), which
ensured protection against racially discrimina-
tory voting practices that had disenfranchised

nonwhites. This act changed the South, as it
allowed African Americans to register to vote
for the first time since Reconstruction. Finally,
Johnson appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
THURGOOD MARSHALL, the first African American
to sit on the High Court.
International affairs did not go as smoothly
for Johnson, especially regarding Vietnam.
Kennedy had sent U.S. advisers to help South
Vietnam repel what the government character-
ized as a Communist insurgency that was
supported by North Vietnam. Johnson did not
wish to abandon the South Vietnamese govern-
ment, and soon his administratio n began
escalating U.S. involvement. In August 1964
Johnson announced that North Vietnamese
ships had attacked U.S. naval vessels in the
Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson asked Congress for
the authority to employ any necessary course of
action to safeguard U.S. troops. Based on what
turned out to be inaccurate information
supplied by the Johnson administration, Con-
gress gave the presiden t this authority in its Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution (78 Stat. 384).
Following his reelection in 1964, Johnson
used this resolution to justify military escala-
tion. In February 1965 he authorized the
bombing of North Vietnam. To continue the
protection of the South Vietnamese govern-
ment, Johnson increased the number of U.S.

soldiers fighting in South Vietnam from 20,000
to 500,000 during the next three years.
As the war escalated, so did antiwar senti-
ments, especially among college students, many of
POVERTY HAS MANY
ROOTS
, BUT THE TAP
ROOT IS IGNORANCE
.
—LYNDON
B. JOHNSON
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
JOHNSON, LYNDON BAINES 37