Justice Older than the Law o Photograph by Margaret Thomas, courtesy Washington Post Justice Older than the Law The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree o KATIE McCABE and DOVEY JOHNSON ROUNDTREE university press of mississippi • jackson MARGARET WALKERALEXANDERSERIES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES www.upress.state.ms.us TheUniversity Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of AmericanUniversity Presses. Photos courtesy of Dovey Johnson Roundtree, unless otherwise credited. Copyright © 2009 by Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree All rights reserved Manufactured in the UnitedStates of America First printing 2009 b Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCabe, Katie. Justice older than the law : the life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree / Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree. p. cm. — (Margaret Walker Alexander series in AfricanAmerican studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-60473-132-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Roundtree, Dovey Johnson, 1914– 2.Lawyers—UnitedStates—Biography. 3.AfricanAmerican lawyers—United States—Biography. 4. Women lawyers—UnitedStates—Biography. 5.Segregation in transportation—Law and legislation—UnitedStates—History. 6.Segregation—Law and legislation—UnitedStates—History. 7.UnitedStates—Race relations—History. 8. Civil rights—UnitedStates—History. I. Roundtree, Dovey Johnson, 1914–II.Title. kf373.r686m34 2009 340.092—dc22 [B] 2008045574 BritishLibrary Cataloging-in-Publication Data available To the memory of my grandmother, Rachel Bryant Graham, the greatest warrior I ever knew —D. J. R. and To the memory of my parents: John T. Burns, who loved the law, and Kathleen Hynes Burns, who loved the dawn; and to both of them, who loved words and taught me to love them too —K. J. M. This page intentionally left blank Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix PREFACE xiii Chapter 1 WALKING UNAFRAID 3 Chapter 2 MAKING SOMETHIN’ OF YOURSELF 12 Chapter 3 “PASS IT ON” Spelman and the Legacy of Mae Neptune 21 Chapter 4 MY AMERICA 39 Chapter 5 “EVERYBODY’S WAR” 55 Chapter 6 UNEASY PEACE 73 Chapter 7 MAKING WAR ON A LIE TheAssault on Plessy v. Ferguson 91 contents Chapter 8 TAKING ON “THE SUPREME COURT OF THE CONFEDERACY” The Case of SarahLouise Keys 118 Chapter 9 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JUSTICE 156 Chapter 10 OUT OF THE DARKNESS 180 Chapter 11 “PEER OF THE MOST POWERFUL” 189 Chapter 12 HEALING THE BROKENNESS 217 BENEDICTION 229 NOTES 233 INDEX 247 viii Acknowledgments When two lives intersect as fruitfully as have Dovey Roundtree’s and mine over the past thirteen years, there is much to be grate- ful for—more than can be articulated in any conventional reckoning. For Dovey, Justice Older than the Law is one long, sustained, profound “thank you” to each of the great figures in her life, from the grand- mother to whom she has dedicated this book to the staggering proces- sion of legal, intellectual, and spiritual mentors who shaped her. “I have found that there is always somebody who would be the mira- cle maker in your life, if you but believe,” she told the Washington Post in February 1995, and it was that utterly unlawerly statement, printed under the photograph that appears on the cover of this book, that com- pelled me to seek her out and attempt to capture her life in words. In that journey, I encountered many a miracle maker of my own. Without my colleague and friend Adina Rishe Gewirtz, this booksim- ply would not exist. It was her belief in the importance of Dovey’s story and in my ability to tell it that sustained me in this endeavor, beginning with my first foray into writing about Dovey’s career in a 2002 Wash- ingtonian magazine article and continuing through every stage of the book’s preparation. To capture the voice of a human being as compli- cated and multifaceted as DoveyRoundtreeand discern the narrative shape of her life proved so difficult that had it not been for Adina’s story genius and unwavering faith, I do not believe that I could have completed the task. To her and her husband, Danny, who patiently tol- erated our endless consultations and made deeply insightful contribu- tions of his own as the manuscript took shape, I say, inadequately but sincerely, “Thank you.” I thank, too, writing colleagues Judith Hillman Paterson and Nancy Ruth Patterson, whose unflagging enthusiasm kept me going. Judith’s un- erring sense of voice, pacing, and style were critical in the early chapters ix