Taming the Storm, The Time and Life of Judge Frank M. Johnson and the South's Fight Over Civil Rights

by Jack Bass

FIRST TRADE PAPERBACK EDITION

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Law, Race

Unknown Binding

First published December 21, 1992

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book concludes with the naming of the federal district courthouse in Montgomery, AL, after Judge Johnson. The building itself pretty much sums up the role of Judge Johnson in nearly single-handedly wielding the law to break the race-based caste system of Alabama (and the South) from the 1950s to the 1990s. Out one courthouse window the Freedom Riders were set upon and beaten by the KKK. Four years later, out the opposite side of the courthouse, Judge Johnson watched the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights marchers turn past the courthouse and up Dexter Avenue to the state Capitol Building. All the great battles were fought in Judge Johnson's courtroom: the Montgomery bus boycott, the Freedom Riders, the voting rights march, the forced integration of the Alabama State Troopers (the same agency that had beaten the marchers on Bloody Sunday), mental health facility reform, prison facility reform, and many others.
Judge Johnson stood and stood against a society bent on his destruction, whether through bombing, threats, or social ostracism. I have rarely read of men such as this who devote a lifetime of standing in the flood and pushing back against it. Such a brave and determined soul, choosing for all time to stand on the side of right to legally change a system and a society: both law books and hearts. His Lincoln quote on his desk best sums up the philosophy that helped him to stand:
"I'll do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out alright, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won't make a difference."
A marvelous, comprehensive biography.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. and the South’s Fight over Civil Rights, Jack Bass (1993).
Overall not a bad book. Johnson clearly was, as Bass suggests, one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. More interesting though was the role that Johnson played first on the District Court and then later on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in shaping equal rights in a variety of other areas (prisoners’ rights, housing, rights of the handicapped). By interspersing interviews with Johnson and his peers with the narrative Bass provides readers with a full understanding of his subject’s judicial philosophy:

“The Constitution of the United States has five thousand words in it. It’s a bare outline that we refer to as our charger of government. It takes interpretation on the party of judges, and on the part of courts, to make the Constitution a document preserves rights now. … there’s no way to construe the Constitution of the United States literally at this time, and make it a document that has any viability. And if that is called judicial activism, than I submit that it’s something that’s necessary in our form of government, unless we want to spend all of our time amending and enlarging and changing the Constitution.” (Johnson, p. 369)

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read about a great federal judge, Hon. Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Jack Bass includes lots of little-known details about some famous episodes in the civil rights movement, including the Montgomery bus boycott and the Selma march, and the man who seemed to be in the middle of so many of them.

My favorite line, though, had nothing to do with important moments in history: The judge's wife, Ruth, had brought home a boy from the school where she taught to join them for lunch. Bass writes, "[W]hen Frank began eating, the boy said, 'Judge, ain't you going to say your verse?'" Judge Johnson stopped eating and said a blessing.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Johnson is responsible for many of the court decisions that made America a better place for African Americans, women, and the mentally ill. This extensive book is a revealing look at the individual and the judge.