Judith Kilpatrick Quotations

He didn't do much arguing of the case, but probably did a lot of the research. And then, for the Supreme Court, he even had his train ticket, but was told not to go. It must have been crushing.

Toward the 1890s, you start seeing more lawyers who are homegrown. Still, for many years, they couldn't get training in the South.

The big surprises were how many there were, and how far back they went. In learning about the names of the lawyers, I started thinking about what it must have been like.

There's a lot of frustration that goes on with this kind of research.

For an ordinary, small-town lawyer, he accomplished incredible things. He reached heights one wouldn't expect of an African-American lawyer -- or any lawyer coming from his background. And these days, no one knows it.

It was just a wonderful mystery in many respects.

The heyday was Reconstruction, really. And then, starting about 1890, Arkansas imposed statutes that forced black people out of public office and made it impossible to vote -- Jim Crow laws -- and I just started to be amazed.