Scope and Content: Nine oral history interviews, conducted
by Bill Brands in late 1985 and early 1986, cover Calvert's childhood in
the Corsicana State Home; his studies at the University of Texas (where
he received his law degree in 1931); his work as an attorney in
Hillsboro, Tex. (1931-1950); his political career as a state
representative (1933-1939), Speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives (1937-1939), Hill County Attorney (1943-1947), and
chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee (1946-1948); his
terms as associate justice (1950-1961) and chief justice (1961-1972) of
the Texas Supreme Court; and his service as chair of the National
Conference of State Chief Justices and of the Texas Constitutional
Revision Commission (1973-1975). In the course of the interviews,
Calvert discussed Texas governors Jim Ferguson, Miriam Ferguson, James
Allred, and Beauford Jester; fellow Hill County attorneys in the 1930s;
the liberal-conservative split in the post-war Texas Democratic Party;
the Lyndon Johnson-Coke Stevenson contest for the U.S. Senate in 1948;
campaigning for judicial office; Calvert's support for reforms in
judicial selection in Texas; his judicial philosophy; important opinions
Calvert authored on the Texas Supreme Court; the functioning of the
Texas Supreme Court; his briefing attorneys; and tort law.
Finding aid: Published as: TEXAS SUPREME COURT TRILOGY,
VOL. 1: ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH THE HONORABLE ROBERT W. CALVERT
(Austin: Jamail Center for Legal Research, 1998); includes index.
Restrictions: Preliminary drafts and interview tapes are
restricted; may be used only with permission of interviewee.
Related records: ORAL MEMOIRS OF ROBERT W. CALVERT: 22 JUNE
1972 (Baylor University: Institute for Oral History, c1991) (copy in
Rare Books, Tarlton Law Library). Jack Pope Oral History Collection, Joe
R. Greenhill Oral History Collection; Tarlton Law Library. Robert W.
Calvert Papers, Center for American History, University of Texas at
Austin.
Garwood, W. St. John, 1896-1987. Garwood was a Justice of
the Texas Supreme Court from his appointment in 1948 to his retirement
in 1958. He attended the University of Texas School of Law before
receiving his law degree from Harvard University 1922. He practiced law
in Houston and went to Buenos Aires in 1929 as attorney for a U.S. oil
company. As a naval officer in World War II, he served in several Latin
American posts. He was a trustee of the University of Texas Law School
Foundation and active in the legal profession.
Scope and Content: Garwood's papers are mainly speech
files, with some correspondence, creative works, and clippings. Much of
the material deals with judicial selection and the judicial process. A
portion of the collection is unprocessed.
Graves, Harry N., 1877-1957. Harry N. Graves practiced law
privately, served as city and county attorney in Williamson County,
served in the Texas House of Representatives (1929-1937) before being
appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. He was elected to and served
on the court from 1938 until his retirement in 1955.
Scope and Content: This collection consist of
correspondence relating to Graves' 1938 campaign for the Court of
Criminal Appeals.
Finding aid: A detailed finding aid to the collection is
available in the Tarlton Library's Rare Book Reading Room.
Greenhill, Joe R., 1914- , interviewee. Joe R. Greenhill,
Sr., holds the record for the longest tenure on the Supreme Court of
Texas in the 19th and 20th centuries. He joined the court in 1957, won
election as chief justice in 1972, and retired in 1982. A 1939 graduate
of The University of Texas School of Law, Greenhill first worked as a
briefing attorney at the Texas Supreme Court. He was appointed Assistant
Attorney General under Price Daniel and helped argue the Sweatt v.
Painter case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a co-founder of the
Austin law firm of Graves, Dougherty & Greenhill, 1950-57, and
joined the law firm of Baker & Botts following his retirement as
chief justice.
Scope and Content: Transcripts and tape recordings of six
interviews conducted by Bill Brands between 9 Jan. 1986 and 5 May 1986,
plus a "Historical Postscript" by Greenhill in which he reminisces about
his colleagues on the bench. In the interviews, Greenhill discusses his
early life; his education at The University of Texas and its law school;
his work as assistant attorney general under Price Daniel, including his
contributions to the Sweatt v. Painter case (1949) which desegregated
The University of Texas; his private law practice with Graves, Dougherty
& Greenhill; his election to the Texas Supreme Court; his work as
the court's chief justice; and his judicial philosophy. Among the
subjects discussed by Greenhill are products liability law, tort reform,
water law, oil & gas law, and judicial selection.
Finding aid: Published as: TEXAS SUPREME COURT TRILOGY,
VOL. 2: ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH THE HONORABLE JOE R. GREENHILL, SR.
(Austin: Jamail Center for Legal Research, 1998); includes index.
Restrictions: Preliminary drafts and interview tapes are
restricted; may be used only with permission of interviewee.
Related records: Robert W. Calvert Oral History Collection;
Jack Pope Oral History Collection.
Hawkins, F. L. (Frank Lee), 1866-1954. A native of
Waxahachie, Texas, and a 1889 graduate of the Law Department at the
University of Texas, Hawkins had served as district judge in Ellis
County for 15 years when Governor Patt Neff appointed him to the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals in 1921. He was elected to the court in the
next election, and won re-election until his retirement in 1950, and was
the court's presiding judge 1939-1950.
Scope and Content: The collection consists mainly of
correspondence, endorsements from local bar associations, newspaper
clippings, and mailing lists relating to Hawkins' re-election campaigns
of 1926, 1938, and 1944. Campaign files are arranged alphabetically, for
Dallas-Leon Counties and Palo Pinto-Zavala Counties. Also present is a
file of correspondence relating to the Allen T. Mulkey Estate (1927) and
some personal correspondence.
Arrangement: 1926 campaign materials are filed by county,
along with files entitled "Form Letters," Special Mailing Lists,"
"Mailing Lists to be Addressed," "Ellis County Special," and "Special."
One large file labeled "1944 Campaign" includes 1938 letters from news
media & organizations. Several 1944 letters are mixed in with 1926
materials.
Related records: Harry N. Graves Papers
W. C. Morrow Papers
McClendon, James W., 1873-1972. James W. McClendon, an 1897
graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, was Associate Justice
of the Texas Supreme Court Commission of Appeals (1918-1923) and Chief
Justice of the Court of Civil Appeals (1923-1949).
Scope and Content: This collection reflects McClendon's
activities on behalf of the Texas Civil Judicial Council, the National
Conference of Judicial Councils, the Judicial Administration Section of
the ABA, and the Texas State Bar Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil
Procedure. The collection includes correpondence, printed material,
newspaper clippings, ephemera, and other records relating to McClendon's
activities for these organizations.
Morrow, Wright C. (Wright Chalfant), 1858-1942. Morrow was
first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1916, and served
as the court's presiding judge from his appointment in 1921 until his
retirement in 1939. A native of Kentucky, Morrow began practicing law in
Hillsboro, Tex., in 1887 with his brother-in-law B. D. Tarlton, later a
professor of law at the University of Texas. He was elected district
judge in Hill County in 1897, and served as state senator from 1912 to
1916.
Scope and Content: Correspondence between Morrow and his
political allies, endorsements from local bar associations, newspaper
clippings, mailing lists, and campaign literature relate mainly to
Morrow's successful 1922 Democratic primary campaign for re-election to
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals against Judge A. J. Harper of El
Paso, whose candidacy was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. A few of
Harper's campaign materials are included. The materials document the
campaign techniques used in 1922 for a statewide judicial election in
Texas, and reflect the attitudes of lawyers, judges and citizens toward
the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Some items describes the Ku
Klux Klan's participation in Texas electoral politics. Included are
sizable files on Morrow's campaign in Bexar, Dallas, DeWitt, El Paso and
Erath Counties. There is one file of personal correspondence and
Christmas cards, 1931-1942.
Arrangement: Campaign materials are arranged alphabetically
by county, Andrews-Kleberg, with several counties missing.
Pope, Jack, 1913- , interviewee. Chief justice, Texas
Supreme Court, 1982-85; associate justice, Texas Supreme Court, 1965-82;
justice, Court of Civil Appeals, San Antonio, 1950-1965; judge, 94th
District Court, Corpus Christi, 1946-1950; practicing attorney, Corpus
Christi, 1937-46. LL.B., University of Texas, 1937.
Scope and Content: Tapes and transcripts of nine interviews
conducted by Bill Brands between 13 Dec. 1985 and 9 June 1986, plus an
addendum by Pope which summarizes his accomplishments as a judge. In the
interviews, Pope speaks about his family history; his childhood in
Abilene, Tex.; his undergraduate education at Abilene Christian College;
his legal education at The University of Texas School of Law; his early
career as a practicing attorney; his election and service as a judge;
his judicial philosophy; campaigning for judicial office; his
recollections of colleagues on the bench; and his landmark water law
decision in the case of Valmont Plantations v. Texas. Pope also
discusses water law, tort law, and his efforts to reform Texas civil
procedure and judicial administration.
Finding aid: Published as: TEXAS SUPREME COURT TRILOGY,
VOL. 3: ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH THE HONORABLE JACK POPE (Austin:
Jamail Center for Legal Research, 1998); includes index.
Restrictions: Preliminary drafts and interview tapes are
restricted; may be used only with permission of interviewee.
Related records: Robert W. Calvert Oral History Collection;
Joe R. Greenhill Oral History Collection.
Smedley, Graham B., 1880-1954. Associate Justice of the
Texas Supreme Court, 1945-1954, Smedley was previously a member of the
Commission of Appeals to the Texas Supreme Court, Section B, 1933-1945.
An acknowledged authority on land titles, oil and gas rights, and
irrigation law, Smedly was known as "the great little dissenter" and for
the sharpness of his dissents. He practiced law in Dallas, Midland,
Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, and Austin. While with the Texas Attorney
General's Office in 1913-18, he handled the state's successful recovery
of 60,000 acres of West Texas land paid in excess for construction of
the state capitol. He authored a digest of Texas oil and gas law.
Scope and Content: This collection contains correspondence,
case files, legal material, printed material, speeches, and other
documents relating to Smedley and his activities with the Texas Supreme
Court and in private practice. A portion of the collection reflects
Smedley's work with land titles, oil and gas rights, and irrigation
laws.
Extent: Black-and-white photographs: 439 items. Color
photographs: 3 items. Black-and-white negatives: 111 items. Documents: 2
in.
Pope, Jack, 1913- , collector. Retired Texas Supreme Court
Chief Justice Jack Pope began to acquire photographs of Texas appellate
court judges in 1982 when he purchased the originals and negatives used
in Ocie Speer's pictorial work, TEXAS JURISTS (Austin, 1936), from W. L.
Thompson, a principal of Steck Publishing of Austin, Tex., the book's
publisher. Pope added contemporary photographs until he had assembled a
nearly complete gallery of judges of the Texas Supreme Court. In 1992 he
donated the entire collection to the Tarlton Law Library, along with
notes, correspondence and published materials.
Scope and Content: Ocie Speer's TEXAS JURISTS depicts
judges and others active in the legal profession from 1845 to 1936,
including the Texas Supreme Court, Commissions of Appeals to the Supreme
Court, Courts of Civil Appeals, Court of Criminal Appeals, Commissions
of Appeals to the Court of Criminal Appeals, U.S. judges for Texas,
Texas attorney generals, and well-known authors and editors of legal
works. A large part of the collection consists of retouched photographs
used to produce TEXAS JURISTS. There are copy negatives for some of the
photographs, as well as a few negatives of unretouched images. A few
photographs published in TEXAS JURISTS are not present in the
collection. There are also modern portraits of members of the Texas
Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. The manuscript material
consists of Justice Pope's lists of members of the court, his
correspondence with sitting justices and the publisher of TEXAS JURISTS,
newsclippings and several pamphlets and manuscripts on Texas Supreme
Court history, and a file of Speer's original typescripts and working
papers for TEXAS JURISTS.
Arrangement: The photographs from TEXAS JURISTS were
originally arranged in the order in which they were published,
chronologically by court. The photographs are now physically arranged
alphabetically by name in 7 boxes holding 7x5 and 5x3 photographs
(TJ1-TJ7), 1 box holding 10x8 photographs (TJ8), and 1 box holding
negatives (TJ9). The finding aid preserves the original intellectual
arrangement. In addition, there is one box (L31) of manuscript
material.
