Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Right Revolution.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. As all lawyers know, the importance of Brown cannot be overstated. In powerful words, the opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren signaled the end of the laws that mandated segregation in most aspects of Southern life. The decision also unleashed a battle--in the courts, in the legislatures, and in the streets--for civil rights.

Jack Greenberg's wonderful new book is a chronicle of this fight. Greenberg, now a professor of law at Columbia University, served as an attorney and then as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. This organization, referred to as LDF throughout the book, has been an active participant in civil rights litigation. In fact, Brown was litigated by LDF.

Crusaders in the Courts is the story of LDF and its work during Greenberg's 35 years at the organization. The book is organized chronologically and begins with a history of LDF and a detailed discussion of Greenberg's arrival at the organization as a volunteer in 1948. The book then recounts, often in vivid detail, the civil rights events of the following three decades.

Actually, three stories are intertwined throughout the book. One is the history of the civil rights movement. In telling this story, the book is on a par with two classic works, Richard Kluger's Simple Justice and Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters.

Kluger's brilliant book tells the story of Brown, from the beginning of the litigation challenging separate schools through the Court's decisions in 1954 and 1955. Branch's book is a riveting account of the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s, including the political and legal battles that were fought.

Greenberg's work is an excellent complement to these earlier outstanding books. It focuses on the efforts of the lawyers involved in the movement. Greenberg tells the story of the Brown litigation, of massive resistance in the South to desegregation orders, of the struggle of the freedom riders, of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s appeal to a nation's conscience, and of the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The book is a moving account of some of the nation's ugliest moments: A governor blocking African-American children from entering schools, a sheriff dispersing peaceful demonstrators with fire hoses, freedom riders being murdered. But it also is a story of a social revolution. The Jim Crow laws that segregated the South for a century were overturned. And federal laws guaranteeing equality in public accommodations, employment, and voting were adopted.

The second story in Greenberg's book --and, indeed, his stated main focus--is the LDF's activities. The group was staffed by some of the greatest and most courageous lawyers in our history. Thurgood Marshall was Greenberg's predecessor as directorcounsel of the organization. Men and women like Robert Carter and Constance Baker Motley, both later federal judges, were important attorneys.

The third story is Greenberg's personal memoir. The book is an autobiography of a man's career as much as it is an account of the history of a movement and an organization. Greenberg had a unique perch, and his story is an inspiring one. In telling it and the story of the LDF, Greenberg also recounts the history of a struggle that continues. The final chapters in the book describe LDF efforts against the death penalty and its racist application, its participation in voting rights litigation and the battle over affirmative action, and the fights for other minority groups in the United States and abroad.

The book should be of interest to a wide audience. The prose is clear and readable. The account is enthralling, which makes the book difficult to put down. Trial lawyers will be fascinated by and will learn a lot from Greenberg's detailed account of LDF's litigation strategy. Those interested in the law more generally will enjoy this tale of how a revolution was fought and at least partially won in the courts and legislatures. The book reminds us of a history that must not be forgotten, and it likely will come to be regarded as a classic account of the civil rights movement.