The Great Climb

At the College of William and Mary in Virginia, the guests included Chief Justice Earl Warren and his British counterpart, Lord Chief Justice Goddard. Members of the Virginia judiciary were there, as well as such celebrities as Arthur Lehman Goodhart, master of University College, Oxford, and Judge Harold Medina. The notables had come to honor three great jurists: Sir William Blackstone, John Marshall, and George Wythe, who 175 years ago was appointed by William and Mary to the first chair of law in the U.S. But though the tributes to these three were the purpose of the ceremony, the center of attraction was largely Earl Warren. It was one of his first appearances in the South since the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the public schools.

Some of the invited Virginia officials seemed determined to show their disapproval. Representative Edward Robeson Jr., whose district includes the college, said he would be out of the state. Former Governor William Tuck announced that "I just don't feel like going," and Governor Thomas B. Stanley excused himself on the grounds that he was having a cattle sale on his farm. At the last moment, Lieutenant Governor A.E.S. Stephens did accept at the governor's request, but only for the morning session. In the afternoon, it seemed, he was due at the Tobacco Festival in Richmond.

In spite of the boycott, Justice Warren minced no words at the celebration. His theme: that justice "is the rightful heritage of every human being and that it is his right and duty to achieve it." In America, said he, "waves of passion, prejudice and even hatreds have on occasion swept over us and almost engulfed us . . . At times we have been close to failure but we have never failed in our climb toward the pinnacle of true justice. And we are climbing today to meet the test of Thomas Jefferson that 'the most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.' "

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