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Bar News - January 5, 2001 In Honor of King, Work for 'Equal Justice Under Law' By: Gregory D. Robbins By MARTIN LUTHER KING Day, to be celebrated this year on January 15th, has a special resonance for me as a lawyer. Our judicial system stands for "Equal Justice Under Law," one of the ideals that Dr. King died trying to make a reality. While certainly we here in America have come as close as any nation to achieving that ideal in our courts, we still have a considerable way to go. Recent surveys have shown that most people of color believe that race still taints the system - that the color of their skin affects their ability to receive a fair trial. I got my first real exposure to racism the summer of my graduation from high school in 1966. I grew up in a virtually all-white suburb of a racially diverse city, Rochester, New York. Rochester had a serious race riot in, I believe, 1963, and racial tensions remained high. At 18, fairly idealistic and very naive about matters of race, I volunteered to work in a program set up to attempt to combat discrimination in private housing. In concept it was very simple: an African-American or other minority member looking for housing (who had been vetted to be sure he/she had adequate incomes, etc. to rent) was teamed with a white volunteer. The non-white client would first go into a place advertised for rent and if turned down for any reason, the white volunteer would go in shortly thereafter to see if he/she would be offered the rental. If so, a housing discrimination claim would be pursued against the landlord, if the client elected to do so. I will never forget my first experience as a volunteer. I was paired with an African-American woman in her late 20s. I remember thinking that in a rational world, anyone looking at the two of us and deciding who was the better risk as a tenant would have picked her in a heartbeat. She went into an apartment and came out immediately, having been told the apartment was already rented. Fifteen minutes later I went in and was shown the place and was offered the rental. Several things about this event left lasting impressions on me. The first was our client's reaction. Her expression when she first came out of the apartment made it clear this was just about what she had expected. What surprised me then - here's where the naive part comes in - was that after I came out and it was clear we had a case, she decided she didn't want to pursue it. Now, while I can never really understand her experience, time has helped me to better understand both the corrosive effect of racism and the reluctance of its victims to rely on white help to fight it. The other memory that has stayed with me is what happened inside the apartment. As I was shown the place by the owner, we were followed around by his granddaughter, a beautiful little girl of five or six who was listening to everything we said and who had doubtless been there when our client was told the place had been rented. I couldn't stop wondering about what she was thinking - and what her grandfather could have been thinking. Perhaps he had simply stopped thinking. It was maybe the most depressing aspect of a very dismal affair. This experience, however, has given me a greater appreciation of Dr. King and his message. In spite of facing hatred and anger as he sought equal rights, his message remained one of inclusion - his dream was of an America where we all accepted and judged each other as individuals; as he said, by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. I wonder if I could be so generous if I'd lived the life he, or my client back in the 60s, had lived. While at present we are not racially diverse in New Hampshire, the rapidly shifting demographics in America indicate that will likely soon be changing. There are certainly social, cultural and gender issues that exist here that can subtly pervade the legal process. As we celebrate Dr. King's life on the 15th, wouldn't it be appropriate for us in the legal community to reflect on the gap that still exists in our justice system between the ideal and reality of "equal justice under law" and what we can do to close it? At a time when it seems there are many things we can't agree on, perhaps this is a principle so compelling, so important, and so connected to what we are all about that we can all come under the same tent. Gregory D. Robbins is the 2000-2001 president of the NH Bar Association.
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