Fraternity

by Diane Brady

  With the publication of The Known World in 2003, Jones was hailed as one of the finest writers of his generation. Set in a fictionalized county of antebellum Virginia, the novel revolves around the life of a black slaveholder named Henry Townsend. Jones won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2004, as well as a $500,000 MacArthur “genius grant.” A year later, he won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for the best work of fiction published in English.

  In 2006, Jones published another celebrated collection of short stories, All Aunt Hagar’s Children. In 2009, he was a visiting professor at George Washington University, and he joined the faculty full-time in September 2010. Jones has never married and still lives alone in Washington, D.C.

  Arthur Martin moved to Washington to attend Georgetown University’s Law School after graduating from Holy Cross in 1970. While there, he became national chairman of what was then called the Black American Law Students Association. Upon graduation, he moved back to New Jersey, where he eventually became deputy attorney general, specializing in civil rights, and spent two decades in private practice. He is now the director of workplace compliance at the Newark Housing Authority and is a founding trustee of Christ the King Preparatory School in Newark. Martin married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Herod, three days after graduating from Holy Cross in 1970. They have one son.

  The career path of Clarence Thomas has been widely chronicled. His experience at Yale University’s law school was a disappointment and, he says, led to no job offers at big-city firms, as many assumed he had earned a spot at Yale because he was black. He moved to Missouri, where he became an assistant attorney general, and later moved on to Washington. His first high-profile job was in 1982, when he was appointed chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Two years later, his marriage to Kathy Ambush, with whom he had a son, ended in divorce. He married Virginia Lamp in 1987 and was nominated to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990.

  About a year later, President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States. The bitter confirmation hearings, involving allegations of crude behavior and unwanted advances toward former colleague Anita Hill, thrust Thomas into the spotlight. Among the speakers who came to his defense was Father Brooks.

  Thomas has since become the most polarizing member of the Court, inspiring passionate reaction from fans and foes alike. While many are quick to note his silence as a Supreme Court Justice—2011 marked the fifth anniversary of the last time he’d asked a question during an oral argument—others argue that Thomas has quietly become an intellectual leader in some of the most critical areas of constitutional law. Along with the many books that examine his life and his record, Thomas himself set out to capture what shaped his philosophy in his memoir, My Grandfather’s Son. Through it all, he has remained attached to Holy Cross, where he served as a trustee, and to Father Brooks. Despite the isolation and anger and the growing disconnection he eventually felt from some of his peers, Thomas says his Holy Cross years were a time in his life when people seemed to look beyond his skin color and accept him for who he was. The expectation from Father Brooks was that he would work hard and do his best, not that he would think in a certain way. To this day, Holy Cross remains a place where he feels he belongs.

  Theodore Wells graduated from Harvard in 1976, with both an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the prestigious Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review. After graduation, he moved to New Jersey, where he served for a year as a law clerk to Judge John J. Gibbons, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, before going into private practice.

  He now works in New York City, where he is a partner and the co-chair of the litigation department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, one of the country’s premiere corporate law firms. Wells is widely considered to be one of the greatest trial lawyers of his generation, and over the past twenty years various publications have recognized him as one of the most influential lawyers in America. The National Law Journal named him Lawyer of the Year in 2006 and one of the decade’s most influential lawyers in 2010.

  Along with representing Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Wells has successfully defended such high-profile politicians as Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan, Secretary of Agriculture Michael Espy, New York governor Eliot Spitzer, and New York governor David Paterson. He has represented Wall Street titans including Michael Milken and Frank Quattrone, and major corporations, including Citigroup, which he successfully defended against an $8 billion civil fraud claim.

  After graduating from Holy Cross, where he later served as a trustee, Wells continued to devote much of his life to civil rights and political causes. He has served as general counsel to the New Jersey NAACP, state chair of the United Negro College Fund, and co-chair of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, as well as treasurer of U.S. senator Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign in 2002.

  In December 2011, Ted Wells received the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund for his commitment to civil rights issues. A month later, he celebrated his fortieth wedding anniversary with his wife, Nina, who has had a distinguished career as a practicing lawyer, corporate executive, and public servant, serving four years as secretary of state in New Jersey. They have two children, and Ted’s mother, Phyllis, continues to live in the same house in Washington, D.C., where Ted grew up.

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  1 one of the best: “A Libby Lawyer Long Used to the Legal Spotlight,” New York Times, November 5, 2005.

  2 memoirs of Justice Clarence Thomas: Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), pp. 49–65.

  CHAPTER 1: ALL OF KING’S MEN

  1 bold and inclusive vision: Giuseppe Alberigo, A Brief History of Vatican II, trans. Matthew Sherry (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2005).

  2 the silence haunted him: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 42.

  3 brutal slaying: CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, April 4, 1968, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmOBbxgxKvo (accessed September 8, 2011).

  4 Emotions were running high: Joseph E. Peniel, Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America (New York: Henry Holt, 2006), pp. 227–28.

  5 By Sunday morning: “People Were Out of Control: Remembering the 1968 Riots,” Washingtonian, April 1, 2008.

  6 $322,000 for each enemy killed: Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement, vol. 5, The Promised Land (1967–68), American Experience on PBS, King on the war on poverty.

  7 blacks have actually been in jail: Ibid., interview between Muhammad Ali and Bud Collins.

  CHAPTER 2: AGAINST THE CLOCK

  1 Afro-Americans: “Interview with New Dean Probes Contemporary Issues,” Crusader, September 20, 1968.

  2 courage, conviction and eloquence: Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J., Thy Honored Name: A History of The College of the Holy Cross, 1843–1994 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1999), p. 392.

  3 I’m happy tonight: Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, Memphis, April 3, 1968, www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm (accessed September 8, 2011).

  CHAPTER 3: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  1 the imprisonment of men’s souls: “To Mr. and Mrs. Yesterday,” New York Times, March 24, 1968.

  2 He had shamed the family: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 45.

  3 He was stuck: Ibid., p. 46.

  CHAPTER 4: COME TOGETHER

  1 poor and the oppressed: “Interview with New Dean,” Crusader, September 20, 1968.

  2 The incoming generation: Nineteen sixty-eight marked the height of troop levels in Vietnam. See www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/cda04–11.cfm.

  3 The rest were an eclectic mix: College of th
e Holy Cross Archives & Special Collections, Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., Papers.

  4 scale its athletic program: “A. D. Litte Report Recommends Athletic Scholarship Abolition,” Crusader, May 8, 1970.

  5 average SAT scores of athletes: Holy Cross Archives.

  CHAPTER 5: WINDS OF CHANGE

  1 there is not one: Kuzniewski, Thy Honored Name, p. 25.

  2 take over the world: Jack Tager, Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000), pp. 118–19.

  3 financial cost of maintaining slave families: Thomas J. Murphy, Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1717–1838 (New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 216.

  4 275,000 black undergraduates: “Black Mood on Campus,” Newsweek, February 10, 1968.

  5 populated by the failures: Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States (New York: Macmillan, 1962), p. 10.

  6 Thomas got up and walked out: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 50.

  7 admit their ignorance: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  8 running scared: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 6: LOVE, LIBERTY, AND LEARNING

  1 dirtying up: Holy Cross Archives, BSU Papers.

  2 The cost of war: Bruce O. Solheim, The Vietnam War Era: A Personal Journey (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), p. 49.

  3 for personal reasons: “Boisture Quits Holy Cross,” Boston Herald Traveler, December 12, 1968.

  4 I cared for her: Edward P. Jones, “Shacks,” The New Yorker, June 13, 2011.

  5 White racism: Worcester Evening Gazette, December 31, 1969 (reprinted in “Blacks Charge Unconscious White Racism,” Crossroads, November 1970).

  6 a degree of suspicion: “Situation of Blacks at Holy Cross Analyzed,” Crusader, April 25, 1969.

  7 an ignorant illiterate: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 53.

  CHAPTER 7: BLACK POWER AND A LOST SEASON

  1 If Holy Cross doesn’t get these students: “Blacks Discuss Change with President Swords,” Crusader, February 28, 1968.

  2 totally alien: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  3 The fact is: Ibid.

  4 which is not revolutionary: “The Case for Separatism: ‘Black Perspective,’ ” Newsweek, February 10, 1969.

  5 foisted on them: “The Case Against Separatism: ‘Black Jim Crow,’ ” Newsweek, February 10, 1969.

  6 freshmen we brought in: As he told one newspaper reporter at the Worcester Telegram, the “freshmen we brought in measure up in all ways. They are strong personalities and have not folded under some tremendous psychological and social pressures.”

  7 in all fairness and justice: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  8 A black man: “Fr. Swords: Integrationist Leadership Lacking,” Crusader, February 28, 1968.

  9 opportunity for an increased social life: Holy Cross Archives, BSU Papers.

  10 one of HC’s best: Crossroads, January 1970. See also: “HC Offense Looks Strong, Defense Could Be Shaky,” The Crusader, September 19, 1969.

  11 his father, Hipolit Moncevicz: “HC Football has soared, sunk to depths,” Worcester Telegram & Gazette, September 24, 1995.

  12 The Harvard team: “Harvard Subdues Holy Cross, 13–0, Extending Unbeaten String to Ten,” New York Times, September 28, 1969.

  13 been forced to cancel: “Holy Cross Cancels Football as Hepatitis Strikes Squad,” New York Times, October 7, 1969.

  14 The Journal: “The Holy Cross College Football Team Hepatitis Outbreak,” Journal of the American Medical Association 219 (February 1972): 706–8.

  CHAPTER 8: FREEDOM AND WAR

  1 They sometimes delighted in the crude: Also chronicled in a book by Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994).

  2 rising as the wheel rises: Clarence Thomas, “Education: The Second Door to Freedom,” speech to College of the Holy Cross, February 3, 1994.

  3 relax and be magnanimous: “Magnanimity,” Crusader, March 2, 1970.

  4 I suggest you explain: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  5 Old Black Joe: Kuzniewski, Thy Honored Name, p. 413.

  6 He had bought a typewriter: “The Column: Have to Get Guns and Be Men,” Crusader, May 1, 1970.

  7 just like a nigger!: Lew Alcindor, “My Story,” Sports Illustrated, October 27, 1969.

  8 the black man’s philosophy: Holy Cross Archives, BSU Papers.

  9 I ain’t got no quarrel: “Muhammad Ali: The Greatest,” Time, June 14, 1999.

  CHAPTER 9: THE WALKOUT

  1 Opposition to the war: “Who Killed Thai Khac Chuyen? Not I, Said the CIA,” Time, September 5, 1969.

  2 a much higher issue: “Initial BSU Statement on Board Report,” Crusader, December 19, 1969.

  3 no alternative except to take action: Ibid.

  4 if you let these men quit: Holy Cross Archives, BSU Papers.

  5 courage: “Courage at Holy Cross,” Worcester Telegram, December 13, 1969.

  6 I am granting amnesty: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers; “Holy Cross President Reinstates 16 Students Suspended in Protest,” Worcester Telegram, December 15, 1969.

  CHAPTER 10: WHAT DO YOU FIGHT FOR?

  1 A businessman propped a casket: “The Death of Free Enterprise,” Worcester Telegram, December 20, 1969.

  2 Clarence has a cumulative quality point index: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  3 This must be the nigger contingent: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 59.

  4 minimum-security penitentiary: “Yippee leader Hoffman attacks injustices in American society,” Crusader, April 10, 1970.

  5 While 55 percent of Americans: Joseph Carroll, Gallup poll, “The Iraq-Vietnam Comparison,” June 15, 2004, www.gallup.com/poll/11998/iraqvietnam_comparison.aspx (accessed September 8, 2011).

  6 A few days later: University of Georgia, www.civilrights.uga.edu/cities/augusta/governor_visits.htm (accessed September 8, 2011).

  7 On May 14, police opened fire: may41970.com/Jackson%20State/jackson_state_may_1970.htm (accessed September 8, 2011).

  8 catalytic events: Swords’s commencement address, Holy Cross, 1970.

  9 convinced the Administration: Holy Cross Archives, BSU Papers.

  CHAPTER 11: EYES ON THE PRIZE

  1 one of Brooks’s first acts: “Holy Cross Plans to Admit Women,” New York Times, January 12, 1971. “The Holy Cross decision makes it the last of the Jesuits’ 28 American colleges and universities to become co-educational.”

  2 The anarchist priest: “Vietnam and Holy Cross: A Timeline,” Holy Cross Magzine, April 1999.

  3 who had supported and pushed: William Van Etten Casey, S.J., and Philip Nobile, eds., The Berrigans (New York: Avon Books, 1971), p. 9.

  4 the cradle of the Catholic Left: “Rebel Priests: The Curious Case of the Berrigans,” Time, January 25, 1971.

  5 security officers were following her around: “All’s Wells,” Suffolk Law, Spring 2008.

  6 When the BSU van broke down: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  7 I am very much aware: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  8 all the tools for stardom: “Crusaders Inexperienced; Defense Looks Impressive,” Crusader, September 25, 1970.

  9 Still, in the second game: “Boston U. Downs Holy Cross, 33–23,” New York Times, October 18, 1970.

  10 I leave with no ill feeling: “Whitton Submits Resignation; Reasons Are Health and Family,” Crusader, February 12, 1971.

  11 the most underrated performer: “Talented Purple Cagers Boast Experience, Depth,” Crusader, November 20, 1970.

  12 Stan was great: “Grayson on Erving: ‘The Best I’ve Faced,’ ” Crusader, February 5, 1971.

  13 That’s nice, son: Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son, p. 95.

  CHAPTER 12: MOVING ON

  1 gung ho attitude: “Holy Cross Ends Slump in 21–6 Harvard Upset,” New York Times, September 26, 1971.

  2 He was feeling more assertive: Mike Hickey, Dream Big Dreams: The Jac
k Donohue Story (Maya Publishing, 2006), p. 141.

  3 petty and characteristically racist: Holy Cross Archives, Brooks Papers.

  4 The black community at Holy Cross: “Blacks Take Over Fenwick Complex,” Crusader, May 5, 1972.

  5 genuine regret: Ibid.

  6 may be the most popular student: “ ’72 ‘Crusader of the Year’ Who Else but Stan Grayson,” Crusader, April 14, 1972.

  WHERE THEY ARE TODAY

  1 While many are quick: “Partners,” The New Yorker, August 29, 2011.

  To Father Brooks, who has inspired generations of Holy Cross students. To Barry, for giving me space, time, and guidance.

  And to Elliott, Natalie, and Connor, for all their laughter and love.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First, I’d like to thank the men whose college lives were chronicled in this book: Stan Grayson, Eddie Jenkins, Edward P. Jones, Clarence Thomas, and Ted Wells. They are not men who need or seek the spotlight, but because of their gratitude to Father Brooks, all of them were generous with their time and insights to help make the story accurate.