Soul of the Court

Legal legend Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer once stated that there were ""only two people in the world who really understood the Constitution"" and its impact on American lives. One was Hugo Black, deceased Supreme Court justice. The other was William Benson Bryant Sr. (1911-2005), who in the early 1950s became the first Black assistant US attorney to try cases in Washington, DCs federal court, and became that same courts first Black chief judge in 1977. Written by award-winning author Tonya Bolden, this biography presents the story of Bryants remarkable, pioneering life in the lawone that began in a segregated DC and included many years as an extraordinary criminal defense attorney, most notably as the dogged defender of Andrew Mallory, a young poor Black man sentenced to the electric chair for the 1954 rape of a white woman. Bryant fought for Mallorys life all the way to the US Supreme Court, chiefly on the grounds that Mallorys confessionthe most damning evidence against himwas the fruit of an illegal detention. The High Court overturned Mallorys conviction. Mallory v. United States was among the cases that culminated in the landmark 1966 Miranda rule. Appointed to federal judicial service by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, Bryants forty-year tenure included cases ranging from overturning a corrupted election of the United Mine Workers and unconstitutional conditions at the DC jail. The biography draws upon an array of documents, newspaper articles, interviews with the judges friends, colleagues, and family members, as well as oral histories, including Judge Bryants. Bolden beautifully narrates the story of a life of compassion, unparalleled integrity, and unwavering belief in the dignity of every human being.