By Nicole Schuman
Gregory Peterson, attorney, and John Q. Barrett, associate professor of law
at St. John’s University, will speak about local hero Robert H. Jackson,
chief Nuremberg prosecutor and justice of the Supreme Court, today at 3:30
p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy.
Peterson, a veteran lecturer at Chautauqua, will provide introductory biographical
data on Jackson and an overview of the accomplishment of the Robert H. Jackson
Center of Justice in Jamestown. Peterson will set the stage for Barrett, who
will discuss six defining moments in Jackson’s career.
Barrett will begin with Jackson’s work as a defense lawyer in the labor
union strikes in Jamestown. Then he will talk of the defense of FDR’s
court packing in 1937, when Jackson became assistant attorney general. Barrett
will discuss Jackson’s work in the defining Korematsu v. United States
and the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans.
Barrett said the “core” of his speech would be about Jackson’s
role as the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, a tremendous honor.
Barrett will also speak about Jackson’s role on the Supreme Court during
segregation and desegregation disputes, particularly, Brown v. the Board of
Education.
“Justice Jackson may have been one of the leading U.S. legal figures
of the 20th century,” said Barrett, who is a Jackson scholar. Barrett
has been deemed a “Jackson scholar.” He is working on two books
on Jackson. One is derived from a lost manuscript on Jackson’s memoir
of FDR, titled That Man. Barrett is editing the book, which is an insider’s
account of FDR.
Jackson at Nuremberg
Barrett is also writing a book on Jackson at Nuremberg. The book will include
his experiences from diaries and letters on becoming the “architect
of the first international criminal tribunal,” Barrett said. “There
has not nearly been enough biographical research done on him,” Barrett
said.
Jackson was born in a farmhouse in 1892 in Springcreek, Pennsylvania, very
close to the New York border. The family moved to Frewsburg where Jackson
grew up. After high school Jackson moved to Jamestown and became a law apprentice
in 1913.
His career spiraled, making him one of the biggest lawyers in Western New
York. Jackson moved to Washington in 1934 to become a general counsel to the
Internal Revenue Service. From 1936 to 1941 Jackson served as an assistant
U.S. attorney general, solicitor general, and attorney general. FDR nominated
Jackson to the Supreme Court in 1941. He served on the Court for 13 years
until his death in 1954.
“He has had an incredibly varied and interesting, authentic career,”
Barrett said. “He had the opportunity to work in a lot of different
settings and his opinions have stood the test of time.”
Barrett graduated from Georgetown University in 1983 and graduated from Harvard
in 1986. He served as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., and began
teaching at St. John’s in 1995. His promotion to professor will become
effective in September.
Barrett found Jackson’s words and model always coming up, so he began
to research and interview others who had worked with him.
Jackson Center in Jamestown
Peterson, an attorney for Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine and Huber in
Jamestown, and a Chautauquan, will speak at length about the creation of the
new Jackson Center. The late Dan Bratton was a major help in the creation
of the center.
The center was merely a vision last December, Barrett said. It took flight
due to two benefactors, Carl Cappa, industrialist, and Elizabeth Lenna, who
met with Peterson on establishing the center to observe the memory, values
and artifacts of Jackson. “The vision became real when Bratton saw the
potential and decided to dedicate his post-Chautauqua time to the establishment
of the center,” Peterson said. “Dan was immediately involved in
the preparation of mission and vision statements, and the real framework which
made us realize our potential.”
Bratton even went to Washington to meet with Sandra Day O’Connor and
while there, Justice O’Connor assisted Bratton in contacting Chief Justice
Rehnquist, who was a confidential clerk of Jackson, assisting in the Library
of Congress and Supreme Court Historical Society. “The Brattons will
forever be a legacy to the center and the community,” Peterson said.
Even after Bratton’s cancer diagnosis, he continued to participate in
person and through writing on the center’s behalf, Peterson said.
Focal Point for Native Son
“He felt strongly about the center serving as a focal point for the
work of a native son whose career spanned from being a country lawyer to trying
the top Nazi war criminals,” Peterson said. As a lawyer in Jamestown,
Peterson couldn’t help but know a little about Jackson’s legacy.
His interest really sparked when the Gebbie Foundation funded a statue in
honor of Jackson, located on the corner of Eighth and Main Streets in Jamestown.
Most people in Jamestown know of Jackson by name, but little else, Peterson
said. The speed with which the center has evolved is something which bears
credit to the type of community Jamestown is. The people are willing to grasp
a concept with a can-do attitude.
This will be Peterson’s first time speaking at the Hall of Philosophy.
He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the Dickinson School of Law. In
addition to his work, he has served for many charitable groups including the
United Way, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, the SUNY at Fredonia
Foundation, and the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce.
The Robert H. Jackson Center is at 305 East Fourth Street in Jamestown.
Peterson and Barrett speak as part of the Chautauqua Women’s Club lecture
series.
Transcribed by Charlene J. Peterson, 2003