Have two speakers this morning. We have Vernon Burton whos from clemson university, and we have Brooke Thomas who is from the university of california at irving. Both of them are stunningly important scholars in this world. Vernon burton is the judge matthew j. Perry distinguished chair of history and a professor of panafrican studies, sociology and anthropology and Computer Science at clemson university, which is to say hes mostly the entire university at this point. His i could read all of his distinguished awards and honors, and then he wouldnt have time to talk. I can only say that he has written a number of very important books. He has given major lectures at many institutions, most recently the annual lecture in southern history at the university of arkansas, and he his books have been in the book of the month club, the history book club, and other clubs. I have always hoped that i could be in a club that vernon was a member of, and im delighted to introduce him to start this mor
Denver, colorado. We spoke with professors, authors and graduate students about their research. This interview is about 20 minutes. We are with professor Vernon Burton of Clemson University and peyton mccrary, George Washington University Law School Lecturer and former department of justices story. You are fresh off your panel on historians as Expert Witnesses. When our historians used as Expert Witnesses, professor burton . Vernon in our case, we have done mainly Voting Rights work. Goes back a number of years but historians were used quite a bit now in a lot of different kinds of litigation. Explaining circumstances. Looking at intent. Environmentalfrom concerns to medical issues. Tobacco. Company. Suits. Think, they me, i could almost be used anywhere to help put things into perspective for what is the Voting Rights, sort of law canon we think of, explaining the totality of circumstances of why a law is passed. Host you spent 26 years with the Justice Department. When did you become
Historians about their research. We are with professor Vernon Burton of Clemson University and Peyton Mccrary, George Washington University Law School Lecturer and former department of justice historian. You are fresh off your panel on historians as Expert Witnesses. When our historians used as Expert Witnesses, professor burton . Vernon in our case, we have done mainly Voting Rights work. Goes back a number of years but historians were used quite a bit now in a lot of different kinds of litigation. Explaining circumstances. Looking at intent. So everything from Environmental Concerns to medical issues. Tobacco. Company. Suits. So, its for me, i think, they could almost be used anywhere to help put things into perspective for what is the Voting Rights, sort of law canon we think of, explaining the totality of circumstances of why a law is passed. Host you spent 26 years with the Justice Department. When did you become being used as an Expert Witness . Peyton i first got involved as an
Maudlin. Really kind of depressing, right . Has the feeling of the war. Early on, there was people who are wanting to fight. Now people are sick of it. This has been building up over time. Charles ok. That is a good point. They have been fighting for over three years and it is wearing on people in there is cash people. There is some much death. So much loss and destruction and people are getting tired of it. And wariness is gaining momentum in the summer and fall of 1864. And we begin to see during the election year, the campaigning starts in the summer and we begin to see the democrats step up their attacks on the lincoln administration. We see them come back, and the other says, boldly returning from canada. What are they going to exploit . What are they going to focus on in the election . I think they are going to focus on sort of the emancipation aspect of it. They are trying to get the more conservative republicans on their side in terms of saying, hey, we do not want to this eman
Company. Suits. So, its for me, i think, they could almost be used anywhere to help put things into perspective for what, in the Voting Rights sort of lockin and we think of explaining the totality of , circumstances of why a law is passed. Host you spent 26 years with the Justice Department. As a historian. When did you become being used as an Expert Witness . Prof. Mccrary i first got involved as an Expert Witness in 1980 when the Supreme Court handed down a decision in a case known as city of mobile versus bolton where the court established that minority plaintiffs challenging a law as racially discriminatory had to demonstrate that it was either adopted or maintained for a racially discriminatory purpose, not merely that it had a racially discriminatory effect. Since the law in question in the mobile case was adopted in 1911, there were not any participants around to be used as witnesses. The only way to figure out intent was to hire a historian to do research. I was teaching at th