Dr. Norwood Kerr of the Alabama Department of Archives and History was—as noted in the appendix—very helpful in locating the transcript and newspaper articles, confirming I had everything pertaining to the case, and in verifying my memory of such details as Hank Aaron’s first game against the Montgomery Rebels.
Special thanks also to Donna Rizzo, who was willing, after hours from her regular job, to help me with research and typing; to Karen Bullard at the Troy City Library, for the photographs of the courthouse that are included and for suggesting that I purchase the Troy and Pike County history mentioned in the narrative; and to Jo Ann Messick, at the Pike County Clerk’s Office, who forwarded me a copy of the record of prior convictions of Charles White, alias C. W. White, alias Herbert Wm. White, and who confirmed that I had a copy of everything in the courthouse file (I had visited the courthouse earlier and conducted my own search).
Thanks to Joe Cassady, Sr., a prominent Enterprise lawyer who practiced for a while with Mr. Yarbrough after my father left the firm. Mr. Cassady (whose distinguished father was a friend of Mr. M. L. in Glenwood) kindly spoke with me to confirm that Mr. Yarbrough’s son, daughters, and other family members had all passed away, making it impossible for me to talk to any of them, and also to confirm that he had no knowledge of State of Alabama v. Charles White, Alias and that the files on cases from the 1930s had not been retained by the firm. Thanks also to Mr. Cassady’s respected former law partner and friend, Dale Marsh, a distinguished Enterprise attorney with an interest in history and the law profession, for forwarding a 1948 letter from my father to Mr. Yarbrough, thanking him for visiting him in Montgomery and asking for a description of his work in Enterprise as a lawyer and reference to support a job application to the Veterans Administration. Thanks also to prominent Troy attorney Joseph Faulk, who wrote that although he practiced law with E. C. Orme, he had no information about State of Alabama v. Charles White, Alias, noting that the case was appealed six years prior to Mr. Faulk’s birth. He did not think that Mr. Orme’s daughter would know anything about the case.
Finally, thanks to my high school classmate Dr. James Vickery, for putting me in touch with his Troy State University colleague Ed Stevens. Ed helpfully found and sent me a copy of the list of potential jurors and spoke with his Troy lawyer friends, who confirmed that all the lawyers and judges practicing at the time were deceased and that there was nothing else in the court files.
Permissions to reproduce the Carver letter, the lines from Congressman Lewis’s book, and the excerpts from the Troy and Montgomery papers were all graciously granted.
Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Madison Beck
All rights reserved
First Edition
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Beck, Joseph Madison, author.
Title: My father and Atticus Finch : a lawyer’s fight for justice in 1930s
Alabama / Joseph Madison Beck.
Description: New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007021 | ISBN 9780393285826 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Beck, Foster (lawyer) | Criminal defense
lawyers—Alabama—Biography. | Defense (Criminal procedure)—Alabama. |
Trials (Rape)—Alabama—History. | Race relations—Alabama—History.
Classification: LCC KF373.B3495 B34 2016 | DDC 345.761/02532—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007021
ISBN 978-0-393-28581-9 (e-book)
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My Father and Atticus Finch Page 18