A Time to Lose: Representing Kansas in Brown V. Board of Education

Wilson, professor emeritus of law at the University of Kansas, was the young assistant attorney general who, in an ``unsought, unplanned, and unearned brush with history,'' had to defend school segregation in Kansas in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court. His memoir, though mainly for specialists, helps fill out the record with useful details and well-considered reflections on the role of the defense. After sketching Kansas's historical ambivalence about race, he recounts his own slow recognition of racial injustice. Then he describes the process of the case, noting that, though he personally opposed segregation, Supreme Court precedent clearly supported its legality. Indeed, unlike defense attorneys in companion cases in South Carolina and Virginia, Wilson welcomed friend of the court briefs from organizations like the ACLU, the CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, ``none [of which] were friends of Kansas and the Topeka Board of Education.'' Wilson also describes his appearances at the Supreme Court and offers critical reflections on the defense argument of the famed John W. Davis. After the decision, he notes, no Kansans acknowledged they had favored segregation: ``They were less righteous than embarrassed.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)