“One man’s justice is another’s injustice”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
At the height of the civil rights movement, Anthony Griffin, grew up amid the dehumanizing aspects of racial segregation. His mother, however, admonished him to ignore “blacks-only” and other signs of segregation because it was the “right thing to do”.
In 1958, when Anthony’s was four, the Alabama NAACP demonstrated against the injustices so despised by his mother. Governor Wallace demanded the NAACP turn over its membership lists, hoping to prove the local chapter was run by outside agitators. The NAACP refused, fearing reprisals against its members.
After a lengthy court battle, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NAACP, declaring Alabama had no right to its membership list, and such demands violated the organization’s First Amendment rights.
Thirty-five years later, Vidor, Texas. Michael Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas Klu Klux Klan organized rallies in opposition to the court-ordered desegregation of a public housing project. In addition to rallies and peddling an assortment of racist paraphernalia, Klan members were accused of making threats to kill the mayor and burn down the town if any black families arrived.
Still, four black families moved into the project but were immediately subjected to severe racial intimidation. Sadly, the last two families are now leaving to escape the harassment.
Local officials believe such intimidation violates the law and the Texas Commission on Human Rights wants the Klan’s membership list and has gone to court to obtain it.
Lowe argued the state had no right his membership records and refused to provide them, fearing reprisals against his members. Unemployed, Lowe sought legal defense through the American Civil Liberties Union. The Texas ACLU, although loathe to the ideas espoused by Mr. Lowe, saw the state’s actions as violations of Constitutional protected rights.
The ACLU called one of its members, Anthony Griffin, now a Galveston attorney, a man with a reputation for accepting unpopular cases. Hearing the facts concerning the state’s demand for membership lists, he reaction was, “That’s illegal!” When next asked if he’d have a problem representing the Klan, he responded, “It’d be an honor.”
That thirty second telephone conversation launched him into a maelstrom of controversy. Moreover, neither the ACLU nor his racist client knew the lawyer they’d engaged was black!
The Texas African-American community quickly condemned his decision. Soon thereafter, Griffin was removed as general counsel for the state NAACP. However, unlike his critics, he recognized the case was not about race, politics, or about whether he and his client liked each other. In fact, Anthony Griffin has gone public with his belief the Klan is a terrorist organization.
This uniquely principled individual understood the precedent set by the NAACP three decades earlier now protected the Klan. More important, he cherished the notion each of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and other Amendments to the Constitution must be vigorously protected, particularly against the subtle intrusions of government.
Clearly, the legacy of the Klan is one of intimidation, violence, and murder … with its victims almost universally black. As such, it’s easy to see why victims of Klan mayhem harbor a deep-seated hatred of this organization, its members and all that they stand for.
Yet, as Justice Frankfurter observed, one would think members of a “vilified and persecuted minority” would be the most sensitive to protecting “the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.” But, such is not the case, nor is it the only recent incident where black community leaders have condemned fellow African-Americans for their stands. This past summer, the Congressional Black Caucus all but expelled Connecticut’s conservative Republican Congressman Gary Frank, whose views are frequently in conflict with its more liberal majority.
Tragically, in our increasingly “politically correct” society, Americans are easily conned into voluntarily abrogating Constitutionally guaranteed rights … to eliminate real or imagined evils. Slick pols are masters at convincing people their protections of free speech, free assembly, probable cause, and due process (to name just four) should be suspended … to restrict the Klan, win the drug war, and solve a host of other social ills.
By contrast, Anthony Griffin is a symbol of intellectual strength and integrity in his defense of the Klan and other unpopular but just causes … because it is the “right thing to do”.
America’s black community, despite its unjust victimization from groups like the Klan, must now stand ready to defend those same constitutional rights for others for which they struggled so hard to earn for themselves. Those lost to the Michael Lowes of today will ultimately be threatened for everyone in the future!
And, wouldn’t it be ironic if the uneasy alliance of necessity between a black man and a white racist assisted in the disintegration of institutional intolerance which has so polarized our nation.
