October 5, 1953: Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice

October 5, 1953: Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the appointment. He would have preferred not to.

Earl Warren (no middle name) was born on March 19, 1891 in Los Angeles, and grew up in Bakersfield, California. He graduated from the University of California, and served in the U.S. Army in World War I, rising to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. He remained in the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of Captain.

He clerked for the Judiciary Committee of the California Assembly, became a Deputy City Attorney for Oakland, a Deputy District Attorney for Oakland's Alameda County, and then started running for office. He was elected District Attorney for Alameda County in 1924, and continually re-elected until 1938, when he was elected Attorney General of California, also serving 6 years as Chair of the State's Republican Party.

In 1942, 1946 and 1950, he was elected Governor. (California didn't limit its Governors and other major State offices to 2 terms until 1992.) In 1944, he was considered for the Vice Presidential nomination at the Republican Convention, and he got it in 1948. He received no blame for the defeat of the Presidential nominee, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, and was considered a front-runner for 1952. He did not run, because General Dwight D. Eisenhower was too popular.

But "Ike" wouldn't have it easy: The conservative wing of the party wanted Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Ike needed the support of the California delegation, which Warren controlled, and so he promised Warren the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in return. Warren agreed, Ike got the nomination, and won the general election.

But when Chief Justice Fred Vinson died in office on September 8, 1953, Ike tried to welch on his deal, telling Warren he meant the first vacancy for Associate Justice. He even offered the Chief Justice post to Dewey, who declined. Warren threatened to reveal the deal, which would have seriously damaged Ike's reputation -- not that he made such a deal, but that he broke it.

Ike decided that, no matter how popular he was, it wasn't worth finding out if Warren was bluffing. He made the appointment, and, despite 3 Southern Senators opposing him on the Judiciary Committee, the full Senate confirmed him by a vote of acclamation: No vote, just an overwhelming advantage of "Yea" votes.

Eventually, Ike would say his two greatest mistakes as President were appointing Warren and Bill Brennan to the Court. But those were political mistakes, not real mistakes. They turned out to be two of the best Justices ever.

The Warren Court (the Supreme Court is often named after the Chief Justice) took America forward in civil rights: For nonwhite people, for women, and for innocent people charged with crimes. It was Warren who insisted that Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that struck down public school segregation based on race, be a unanimous vote, and managed to persuade the last holdout Justice, Stanley Reed, to join the 9-0 opinion.

If I were going to make my all-time nine-person Supreme Court, it would include Warren and 3 Justices who served with him: Brennan, William O. Douglas and, for about a year and a half starting in late 1967, Thurgood Marshall.

As Governor in 1946 when Richard Nixon was first elected to the House of Representatives from a District in California, in 1950 when Nixon was elected to the Senate, and in 1952 when Nixon was elected Vice President, Warren knew Nixon well, and didn't trust him. He was not happy about having to swear Nixon into office as President in 1969, or about Nixon getting to appoint his successor, Warren Burger.

Warren wanted to retire in 1968, but due to political circumstances, stayed on until 1969. He died on July 9, 1974, at the age of 83, knowing that Nixon's impeachment, or his resignation to avoid that, was likely, but a month before the resignation actually happened.

*

October 5, 1953 was a Monday. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium, when Billy Martin singled Hank Bauer home in the bottom of the 9th inning, to win Game 6, and thus the World Series. It was their 5th straight World Championship, a feat never done before or since in baseball. I have a separate entry for that event.

This was before Monday Night Football, so there were no football games. It was too early to start the new NBA and NHL seasons. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

September 24, 1964: The Warren Commission Report

Warren hands LBJ the report,

as Russell and Ford (blocked from view) look on

September 24, 1964: The Warren Commission, assigned to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, releases its report. They determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of the assassination, did it, and acted alone; so did Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald 2 days later; and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.

Lyndon B. Johnson, who became President upon the assassination, wanted to quash all the rumors about it, assigned to it men he considered to be of high integrity. Whether you, with decades of hindsight, agree is up to you:

* Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as Chairman and namesake.

* Gerald Ford, Representative from Michigan, the House Minority Leader, a former All-American football player at the University of Michigan, and later to be both Vice President and then President himself.

* Hale Boggs, Representative from Louisiana, the House Majority Whip.

* Richard Russell, Senator and former Governor of Georgia, who had been one of Johnson's mentors upon his arrival in the Senate, but also a nasty segregationist. Johnson may have thought that being on the Commission would distract him from trying to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If that's what he thought, he was wrong, but it wasn't stopped.

* John Sherman Cooper, Senator from Kentucky, and a former U.S. Ambassador to India.

* Allen Dulles, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and brother of Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.

* John J. McCloy, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously an Assistant Secretary of War under Henry Stimson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the World Bank under President Harry Truman, American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany,

Kennedy and Johnson were Democrats, as were Russell and Boggs. Warren, Ford, Cooper, Dulles and McCloy were Republicans. So the Commission was 5-2 Republicans, and the 2 Democrats were both Southerners: Boggs was liberal on most issues other than race, and Russell wasn't liberal on any issue. Aside Boggs and, crossing party lines, Ford, none ever said they were friends of Kennedy's. Indeed, Dulles' brother had been fired as CIA Director by Kennedy.

There was a lot of evidence of a conspiracy. Of course, evidence is not necessarily proof.

Dulles died in 1969, Russell in 1971. Boggs was lost in a plane crash in 1972, and some JFK assassination conspiracy theorists thought that was suspicious. Johnson died in 1973, Warren in 1974, McCloy in 1989, Cooper in 1991, and Ford, the last survivor, in 2006.

*

September 24, 1964 was a Monday. Disgraced baseball star Rafael Palmeiro was born. This was also the day The Munsters premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

These 4 baseball games were played:

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. This was the 6th game of the 10-game "Phillie Phlop" that cost Philadelphia the National League Pennant. Wade Blasingame outpitched Jim Bunnring. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4. Joe Torre went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. For the Phillies, Dick Allen went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 and 4-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Gibson outpitched Wilbur Wood in the opener. Curt Flood went 4-for-5. Ray Sadecki pitched a 5-hit shutout in the nightcap, striking out 10. Lou Brock and Mike Shannon hit home runs. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente went 1-for-8.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks was announced in the starting lineup as playing 1st base and batting 5th, but was scratched, and replaced by John Boccabella. The Dodgers led 3-1 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Cubs scored a run in the 8th and 2 in the 9th. Ron Santo hit a sacrifice fly to bring Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) home with the winning run.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall in front of the Supreme Court Building, 1954

May 17, 1954: In a unanimous 9-0 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States decides, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation in public schools -- from kindergarten all the way up to State universities -- is unconstitutional.

Hail the wise men:

* Earl Warren, 63, from Oakland, California, the Chief Justice, formerly his State's Governor and Attorney General, and the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President in 1948. Appointed by the current President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.

* Hugo Black, 68, from from Ashland, Alabama, formerly a Democratic U.S. Senator from his State. His was the most surprising vote of all: He was not only a Southerner, but a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Serving on the Court from 1937 until his death in 1971, his decisions seemed to be an effort to make up for his KKK membership. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat.

* Stanley F. Reed, 69, from Minerva, Kentucky, formerly U.S. Solicitor General under FDR, who appointed him to the Supreme Court. Another Southerner who turned his back on white supremacy.

* Felix Frankfurter, 71, born in Vienna, Austria, but grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He had previously been among the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, and an adviser to FDR and his Administration. FDR appointed him, as well.

* William O. Douglas, 55, from Yakima, Washington, formerly Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He remains the longest-serving Justice in the Court's history, 36 years from 1939 to 1975. The current longest-serving Justice, Clarence Thomas, would have to serve until late 2027 to surpass him. Another FDR appointee.

* Robert H. Jackson, 62, from Frewsburg, Western New York, formerly U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General, having succeeded Reed in that latter office. Another FDR appointee. He died only 5 months later, on October 9, 1954.

* Harold H. Burton, 65, from Boston, formerly U.S. Senator from Ohio and Mayor of Cleveland. FDR crossed Party lines to appoint Burton, a Republican, to the Court.

* Thomas C. Clark, 54, from Dallas, another former Attorney General under FDR. Another Southerner voting to strike down segregation. Appointed by President Harry S Truman, a Democrat.

* Sherman Minton, 64, from Georgetown, Indiana, formerly U.S. Senator from his State. Appointed by Truman.

The full name of the case was Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was a welder working for a railroad, and an assistant pastor. His daughter, Linda Carol Brown, was in the 3rd grade, and had to walk 6 blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, an all-black school, 1 mile away. Sumner Elementary School, all-white, was just 7 blocks away -- 1 block longer than the walk to the bus.

Linda Brown

(Ironically, the all-black school was named for James Monroe, a President who had been a slaveholder; while the all-white school was named for Charles Sumner, who had been the U.S. Senate's leading abolitionist.)

Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiffs, as the general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The ruling overturned the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that "separate but equal" facilities be provided in public places. In Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Marshall had been hired by the NAACP's first special counsel, Charles Hamilton Houston. His strategy was to attack segregation by legally forcing the South's hand on the "separate but equal" doctrine. He orchestrated a campaign to force Southern districts to build facilities for blacks equal to those for whites, or to integrate their facilities. He focused on law schools because, at the time, mostly males attended them. He believed this would obviate the fears whites expressed that integrated schools would lead to interracial dating and marriage.

In the 1938 case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Houston argued that it was unconstitutional for Missouri to exclude blacks from the State's university law school when, under the "separate but equal" provision, no comparable facility for blacks existed within the State.

In other words, he put Missouri in a corner: Either spend the money to build a separate all-black law school, or compromise your principle of bigotry and take the cheaper option of integrating the law school you already have. They chose the latter. For this reason, Houston became known, if prematurely, as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." Sadly, he died in 1950, only 54 years old, from a heart attack, and did not live to see Brown v. Board, or the later gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Had he lived long enough to see Marshall on the Supreme Court, he would have been 72.

Oliver Brown died of a heart attack in 1961, only 42 years old. Linda Carol Brown grew up to become a teacher and a civil rights advocate, and lived until 2018. Douglas was the last of the 9 Brown Justices to still be serving, in 1975; while Reed was the last survivor of those Justices, dying in 1980, 74 days after Douglas. Marshall lived until 1993.

*

May 17, 1954 was a Monday. It was the off-season for the NFL, and the NBA and the NHL had already completed their seasons. And Monday is often a travel day in Major League Baseball. As a result, only 3 games were played that day, and none of them involved the New York teams:

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Joe Presko pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Robin Roberts.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium in Detroit. 

January 20, 1961: President John F. Kennedy Is Inaugurated

January 20, 1961: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Bostonian who had served the previous 8 years in the U.S. Senate, and the 6 years before that in the U.S. House of Representatives, is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States, on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

(This had been the traditional site for the Inauguration since 1817. Since 1981, it has been done on the West Front of the Capitol.)

On November 8, 1960, as the Democratic Party's nominee for the office, he had narrowly defeated the Republican Party's nominee, the man who was then the Vice President, Richard Nixon, seeking to succeed Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 1st President who had been restricted to 2 terms by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

At 43, JFK (so often referred to by his initials) was the youngest man ever elected to the office. Theodore Roosevelt had been the youngest President to serve, just short of turning 43 when he was sworn into the office in 1901 following the assassination of William McKinley. However, when he won a term of his own, he was older than JFK was at his Inauguration.

Kennedy was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Earl Warren. The new Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texan who had been the Senate's Majority Leader, was sworn in by the Speaker of the House, John McCormack, like Kennedy a Bostonian. Outgoing President Eisenhower, outgoing Vice President Nixon, and former President Harry Truman were in attendance. (The other former President then still living, Herbert Hoover, 86 years old, was not.)

Earlier, Cardinal Richard Cushing, Archbishop of Kennedy's hometown of Boston, delivered the Invocation. (Kennedy was the 1st Roman Catholic to become President.) Marian Anderson, a black opera singer who famously sang at the Lincoln Memorial in a nationally broadcast concert on Easter 1939, following her denial of the chance to sing at Washington's Constitution Hall, sang the National Anthem. Robert Frost, like Kennedy a New Englander, read a poem for the occasion.

Kennedy had won by evoking a previous President known for his initials and his activism, FDR: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had made the argument that the Eisenhower-Nixon Administration had stood still on the great issues of the time: Civil rights, health care, labor, and various issues relating to foreign policy. (At the time, the rights of women and LGBT people, the legal status of abortion, and the protection of the environment were almost totally ignored.) And his victory was a narrow one.

So he knew he needed an Inaugural Address which, like FDR's in 1933, would be both hopeful and unifying. Gerald Ford, then a Congressman from Michigan, was in attendance, and would eventually become President himself, with an Inaugural Address that, even more, needed to be hopeful and unifying. In an interview years after he left the White House, Ford said it was bitterly cold in Washington that day, following a big snowfall the night before, and the Capitol grounds had barely been cleared of snow. Ford remembered people sharing his hope that the address would be brief.

They got their wish: The delivery of the 1,366 words took 14 minutes. Kennedy began magnanimously: "We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change."

But the change from the 70-year-old, bald and terribly-old-looking Eisenhower to the 43-year-old, dark-haired, full of vigor -- or "vigah," in his accent -- Kennedy, whose wife Jacqueline was only 31 and whose children were then ages 3 years and 2 months, could not have been more stark.

And he pointed out the generational difference, that leadership of the country was passing from the commanders of World War II to its front-line fighters: "Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."

He knew that his experience and his maturity had been questioned during the 1960 campaign. So his next line was very determined -- but, in hindsight, perhaps a bit much: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge, and more."

In fact, the Address was almost completely devoted to America's relations with other nations, rather than to domestic affairs:

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share: We pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free: We pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom, and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery: We pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border: We offer a special pledge, to convert our good words into good deed, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace: We renew our pledge of support, to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary: We offer not a pledge, but a request: That both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

It was ambitious, and it was idealistic. But Kennedy was also a realist, saying, "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

Kennedy had been a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II, ready to serve in spite of his physical infirmities, and forced by circumstance to save his men following a Japanese attack: When asked during his 1st campaign for Congress, in 1946, "How did you become a war hero?" he told the truth: "It was involuntary. They sank my boat."

Due to personal experience, he never forgot that war makes men do risky things, perhaps even terrible things, to assure the survival of their country. He thus wanted to make war as unnecessary as possible, especially now that both the United States and the Soviet Union possessed nuclear weapons. Every bit as much as the generations that fought for the patriot causes in the War of the American Revolution and the American Civil War, he knew that his generation, the one that fought World War II, had been forced to step in at a grave moment.

And he knew that moment was not over, because a new generation was coming up, and would have to face difficult times and home and abroad. So he spoke to that generation as well:

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it!

I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

Those words should have lived forever. They lived all of 5 seconds, because of what he said next, to being his closing:

And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world: Ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that, here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own.

Along with the 2 Inaugural Addresses of Abraham Lincoln, and the 1st of FDR, JFK is regarded as having produced -- with notable help from speechwriters Theodore C. Sorenson and Richard Goodwin -- one of the greatest Inaugural Address of any President.

Kennedy's time as President was, as Theodore Roosevelt would have put it, a "crowded hour." But in spite of all he did, and tried to do, he is remembered today mainly for two things: The way his Presidency began, with a legendary campaign and an epic Inaugural Address; and the way his Presidency ended, with an assassin's bullets in broad daylight.

*

January 20, 1961 was a Friday. It was the off-season for baseball. The NFL season had ended 3 weeks before, with the NFL and AFL Championship Games (won by the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Oilers, respectively). There were no NHL games scheduled for the day.

And only 1 NBA game was: The Detroit Pistons beat the New York Knicks, 132-128 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Richie Guerin scored 35 points for the Knickerbockers, but it wasn't enough, as Bailey Howell scored 29, and Gene Shue, who would coach the Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA Championship, added 26.