Jeffery WilliamsMellon Postdoctoral Fellow

Jeff Williams (PhD, History, University of South Carolina)studies the work of local lawyers to advance African American rights beforeBrown v. Board of Educationended legalized segregation in 1954.

He will be working on a book entitled Colored Lawyer, Topeka: The Legend and Legacy of Elisha Scott. Scott (1890-1963) became so well known for helping down and out African Americans that he would receive letters addressed only “Colored Lawyer, Topeka.” Scott’s parents were born enslaved in Tennessee but found opportunity by migrating to Kansas. In Topeka, Scott earned a first-rate legal education and became a nationally known fighter for African American rights. His cases often drew huge mixed audiences, as Scott could dramatize a final argument like a trained Shakespearian. He stood only five and half feet tall, but Scott was just as likely to fight with his fits as he was with his wits. In court, he would use the law when it was on his side and the Bible when the law was against him. Studying Scott’s successful yet tumultuous life provides an opportunity to delve into historical questions about the transition from Jim Crow era lawyers fighting to hold onto what rights African Americans had to civil rights lawyers fighting for full citizenship rights. Furthermore, the advantage of writing about the life of one historical figure is the variety inherent in any person’s life. The book will also examine questions about migration, Black manhood, Black lawyers and the Jim Crow color line, racist violence, the Jim Crow economy, and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence.