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December 2002 | It was flattering and surprising to have my piece included in the distinguished company making up these volumes of American journalism. I started in civil rights work in 1949 because I felt that Senator Joseph McCarthy and his Senate Committee along with the House Committee on Un-American Activities constituted a threat to American democracy more dangerous than anything external. I went to Mississippi in 1964 not as a journalist, but as a lawyer for the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee which was put together by the American Civil Liberties Union. I later worked in Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party with a group which finally evolved into the Center for Constitutional Rights. My piece in this collection was written at the request of Leon Friedman, one of the lawyers who realized that our recollections as civil rights lawyers in the heady days of massive and violent resistance by southern politicians and society might prove valuable. My then recent experience as a combat infantryman, I have no doubt, added to whatever effectiveness I had as a lawyer surviving hostile mobs, sheriffs, and judges.
About Jeremiah Gutman
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