BROWNELL, HERBERT, JR.
Herbert Brownell Jr., 1952, New York.
Herbert Brownell Jr. was the 65th attorney general of the United States.He served from 1953 to 1957 in the administration of President DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. Brownell’s tenure as attorney general was marked by his advocacy of CIVIL RIGHTS, particularly concerning the enforcement of the landmark case BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954) in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of desegregation of public schools. Brownell also proposed landmark civil rights legislation.
Brownell was born in Peru, Nebraska, on
February 20, 1904. In 1924, he graduated from
the University of Nebraska and then attended Yale Law School. After receiving his law degree in 1927, Brownell was admitted to the New York State bar and worked for the noted law firm of Root, Clark, Buckner, Howland & Ballentine for two years. In 1929, he joined the law firm of Lord, Day & Lord.
Brownell served as a member of the New
York State Assembly from 1933 to 1937, becoming
an advisor to THOMAS E. DEWEY, a New York
district attorney who had successfully prosecuted
organized-crime syndicates. Dewey had
run for governor in 1938 but lost to incumbent
Herbert Lehman. Dewey also made an unsuccessful
bid for the Republican presidential nomination
in 1940. Brownell urged Dewey to run
again for governor in 1942.With Brownell as his
campaign manager and chief political strategist,
Dewey was elected governor of New York.
With Brownell managing his campaign,
Dewey ran again for president in 1944, only to
lose to FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT. Having gained
national prominence, Brownell served as chairman
of the Republican National Committee
from 1944 to 1946. He also functioned once
more as the presidential campaign manager for
Dewey, who had been re-elected governor in
1946. In 1948, HARRY TRUMAN narrowly
defeated Dewey.
In 1952, Brownell encouraged WORLD WAR II
hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for
president. Brownell helped the general to secure
the Republican nomination and then worked
closely with him in his successful run for the
presidency. In 1953, a grateful Eisenhower
appointed Brownell as U.S. attorney general.
Brownell was an influential advisor to the
president and was involved in numerous controversial
situations. Shortly after his appointment
as attorney general, Brownell became involved
in the case of JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG,
who had been convicted of ESPIONAGE and sentenced
to death. Supporters of the Rosenbergs,
who had exhausted all their appeals, petitioned
the president to commute their sentences to life
imprisonment. In June 1953, U.S. Supreme
Court Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS granted the
Rosenbergs a stay of execution in order to consider
new evidence. Although the U.S. Supreme
Court was recessed for the summer, Brownell
convinced the justices to come back and hear the
matter. The Court, in a special session on June
19, 1953, dissolved the stay, and the Rosenbergs
were executed that same day.
Brownell raised the ire of many Southerners
(as well as anti-integration forces throughout
the country) when he used the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
to enforce the mandate of the Brown case
in desegregating public schools in the South.
The climax came when Arkansas Governor
Orville Faubus ordered the state’s NATIONAL
GUARD to bar black students who were seeking
admittance to a high school in Little Rock.
Eisenhower, at Brownell’s urging, federalized the
troops and used them to escort the students to
and from the school.
Brownell, who had been a civil rights supporter
since his days in the New York State legislature,
drafted legislation that would give the
U.S. attorney general unprecedented power to
institute suits in the name of the United States to
enforce civil rights in many public accommodations
including housing, parks, theaters, restaurants,
and hotels. The legislation, called the
Brownell Bill, also sought the power to enforce
injunctions to stop violations of civil rights in
the same areas. The bill went through numerous
permutations and ended up being greatly weakened
in its enforcement efforts. Nevertheless, it
was passed as the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT of 1957—
the first civil rights legislation passed in 82 years.
After leaving his post as attorney general in
1957, Brownell served as the United States’
member to the Permanent Court of ARBITRATION
at the Hague.He remained associated with
of the Lord law firm from 1977 to 1989. From
1985 to 1989, he served as a member of the U.S.
Bicentennial Commission for the U.S. Constitution.
In 1993, he published Advising Ike: The
Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell.
Brownell died in New York City on May 1, 1996.
FURTHER READINGS
Attorneys General of the United States, 1789–1985. 1985.
United States Department of Justice.Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office.
Brownell, Herbert, with John P. Burke. 1993. Advising Ike:
The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell.
Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
Caro, Robert. 2002.Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon
Johnson. New York: Knopf.
Herbert Brownell Jr. 1904–1996
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