Read Online America Behind the Color Line by Henry Louis Gates - Free Book Online
Authors: Henry Louis Gates
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went to or what you were and regardless of any class standing—not in the city government, the county government, the state government, or the federal government, and certainly not in a private law firm. And so my only option was to choose between a black real estate lawyer, who was offering more money, and Don Hollowell, who was offering me thirty-five dollars a week to be his law clerk, and I chose it. I was as happy as I could be. I had a wife and child, and I was in the movement. I was a soldier, a foot soldier, and it was very exciting. Six months after law school, in 1961, I was escorting Charlayne Hunter through the mobs as she enrolled at the University of Georgia. And I understood why I was there and why I had gone to Howard University Law School, which was the only law school that had a course in civil rights, in 1957. At other law schools, they taught the Commerce Clause, but at Howard, we were taught the Commerce Clause and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and it was a school with a great heritage. It was Durban Marshall’s school and it was Spotswood Robinson’s school and it was Robert Carter’s school, and it was a forum where the dry runs for the Supreme Court arguments took place.
There was nothing better than going at night to the dry runs and sitting and watching Bob Maine, Bill Coleman, Frank Reeves, Jackie Owen, Don Hollowell, Jack Greenberg, and Constance Motley. You were seeing in action what you wanted to be. When they would take their breaks and stand around outside the courtroom, Doug Wilder and I—we were there at law school together—would just stand around and just listen and be in their presence.
The integration of corporate America has been going on a very long time.
I went on my first corporate board in 1972. Two years earlier, I first came to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the building where I now work, with Dr. Fred Patterson, founder of the United Negro College Fund and third president of the Tuskegee Institute. Patterson was the son-in-law of Robert Moton, who was the second president of Tuskegee. Patterson married Moton’s daughter, which is probably how he got to be president. I’d just moved to New York from Atlanta to become the new executive director of the College Fund. I believed with a passion in the mission of the fund. We had not gained a level playing field for blacks with respect to education, and still have not. I had always believed in the role of historically black colleges. The small number of openings each year for blacks in the country’s white colleges cannot possibly serve the thousands of black students who seek an education and full participation in the civic, social, and economic life of this country.
So I was the new kid on the block, literally. The president of the College Fund, Dr. Stephen H. Wright, had recently left that post, and the fund had other troubles. The philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III had resigned from its board of trustees, as had advertising executive David Ogilvy and Andrew Heiskell, the chairman of Time Inc. Disputes about the management of the fund had led to an impasse.
Dr. Patterson thought it would be helpful to try to persuade Mr. Rockefeller to come back on the board of the fund. Mr. Rockefeller was not very nice to us; in fact, he bordered on being rude. And he said he was not going to come back on the board for the College Fund. Patterson introduced me as the new guy, as the young fella who was going to lead the College Fund. Mr. Rockefeller said, “I’m not gonna do it.” White fellas are always stacked here at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund down on 54, 56. And I got back to my office and Datus Smith, an aide to Rockefeller, called me and said, “Young man, you made a mistake,” and I said, “What was that?” and he said, “You shouldn’t have come here with Dr. Patterson, he’s mad with Dr. Patterson. I’m arranging for you to come back alone to see him.”
I came back about ten days later to
There was nothing better than going at night to the dry runs and sitting and watching Bob Maine, Bill Coleman, Frank Reeves, Jackie Owen, Don Hollowell, Jack Greenberg, and Constance Motley. You were seeing in action what you wanted to be. When they would take their breaks and stand around outside the courtroom, Doug Wilder and I—we were there at law school together—would just stand around and just listen and be in their presence.
The integration of corporate America has been going on a very long time.
I went on my first corporate board in 1972. Two years earlier, I first came to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the building where I now work, with Dr. Fred Patterson, founder of the United Negro College Fund and third president of the Tuskegee Institute. Patterson was the son-in-law of Robert Moton, who was the second president of Tuskegee. Patterson married Moton’s daughter, which is probably how he got to be president. I’d just moved to New York from Atlanta to become the new executive director of the College Fund. I believed with a passion in the mission of the fund. We had not gained a level playing field for blacks with respect to education, and still have not. I had always believed in the role of historically black colleges. The small number of openings each year for blacks in the country’s white colleges cannot possibly serve the thousands of black students who seek an education and full participation in the civic, social, and economic life of this country.
So I was the new kid on the block, literally. The president of the College Fund, Dr. Stephen H. Wright, had recently left that post, and the fund had other troubles. The philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III had resigned from its board of trustees, as had advertising executive David Ogilvy and Andrew Heiskell, the chairman of Time Inc. Disputes about the management of the fund had led to an impasse.
Dr. Patterson thought it would be helpful to try to persuade Mr. Rockefeller to come back on the board of the fund. Mr. Rockefeller was not very nice to us; in fact, he bordered on being rude. And he said he was not going to come back on the board for the College Fund. Patterson introduced me as the new guy, as the young fella who was going to lead the College Fund. Mr. Rockefeller said, “I’m not gonna do it.” White fellas are always stacked here at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund down on 54, 56. And I got back to my office and Datus Smith, an aide to Rockefeller, called me and said, “Young man, you made a mistake,” and I said, “What was that?” and he said, “You shouldn’t have come here with Dr. Patterson, he’s mad with Dr. Patterson. I’m arranging for you to come back alone to see him.”
I came back about ten days later to
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