Lawyers

Adams describes her experiences as a law student at the University of Kentucky in the early 1950s and as a lawyer in private practice with her husband, Charles C. Adams, in Somerset, Kentucky. She also discusses how she combined family life with her career.

Bill Allison, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, acted as an appeals attorney for one of the Black Six defendants, Ruth Bryant. The Black Six were a group of five men and one woman who were prosecuted for inciting rebellion during the Parkland Uprising of 1968. Allison also represented the Black Panthers in Louisville and in Memphis, Tennessee. In this interview, Allison speaks about cases he was involved in involving government repression and retaliation against Civil Rights activists and how he became involved in that work through the Southern Conference Educational Fund, serving as SCEF's lawyer from 1969 to 1974.

Mary Jo Arterberry relates her experiences in law school at the University of Louisville, where she graduated in 1949. She also described her career which began in private practice with a small firm specializing in real estate. She later worked in the advertising field and for Kentucky state government before returning to the practice of law as an attorney for Kentucky state agencies. She later became a federal administrative law judge and was assigned to Knoxville, Tennessee, at the time of the interview.

Baldauf discusses her education at the Jefferson School of Law in the 1930s and her subsequent career as a legal secretary, secretary to the dean of the Speed Scientific School at the University of Louisville, and as an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Robert Benson (b. 1942 in Lousville), Louisville lawyer and former Kentucky legislator, speaks about his experiences with the Civil Rights Movement and some of its leaders in Louisville. Topics include how he became aware of prejudice in the community and got involved with the Open Housing movement; the demonstrations for Open Housing; his experiences representing the Hikes Point/Highlands district from 1974-1980; his friendship with ACLU lawyer Thomas Hogan, who filed the lawsuit that lead to desegregation efforts in Louisville; the passing of laws merging Jefferson County school districts; the passing of laws to desegregate the resulting combined school district; and the backlash and demonstrations against desegregation and busing.

Alex Berman talks about Jewish young people joining professions, the effect of the Great Depression on small businesses, investing in real estate in the early 20th century, his generation choosing to enter the professions rather than going into business, working as a lawyer defending bootleggers for a brief period, his opinion about the Masons not doing enough to resist nazism, his reflections on a recent reports of swastikas posted in Louisville and the Constitutional right to free speech. He also reflects on the changes in the Jewish community over time, his involvement in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.

Berman discusses how and why his parents came to the United States from Poland; his father's work as a peddler and in other businesses; the early Orthodox Jewish community in Louisville; the effects of the Depression on this father's business; his decision to attend the University of Louisville School of Law, from which he graduated in 1928; his early law practice; and activities in Keneseth Israel congregation. Berman concludes with reflections on changes in the local Jewish community during his memory.

Briggs discusses her education at the University of Kentucky School of Law, her career in private practice with her husband in Flora, Indiana, and her family life as a wife and mother of two.

An interview about the experiences of an older, practicing woman attorney. (Detailed summary is available in interview folder.)

Dunn discusses her life as a student at the Jefferson School of Law, where she graduated in 1931, and her career. She began work as a legal secretary, then opened her own office in Paducah, Kentucky. Dunn continued working into her eighties.