The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero

by Peter S. Canellos

Overview

The “superb” (The Guardian) biography of an American who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.

They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, John Marshall Harlan’s words helped end segregation and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom.

But his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Robert Harlan, a slave who John’s father raised like a son in the same household. After the Civil War, Robert emerges as a political leader. With Black people holding power in the Republican Party, it is Robert who helps John land his appointment to the Supreme Court.

At first, John is awed by his fellow justices, but the country is changing. Northern whites are prepared to take away black rights to appease the South. Giant trusts are monopolizing entire industries. Against this onslaught, the Supreme Court seemed all too willing to strip away civil rights and invalidate labor protections. So as case after case comes before the court, challenging his core values, John makes a fateful decision: He breaks with his colleagues in fundamental ways, becoming the nation’s prime defender of the rights of Black people, immigrant laborers, and people in distant lands occupied by the US.

Harlan’s dissents, particularly in Plessy v. Ferguson, were widely read and a source of hope for decades. Thurgood Marshall called Harlan’s Plessy dissent his “Bible”—and his legal roadmap to overturning segregation. In the end, Harlan’s words built the foundations for the legal revolutions of the New Deal and Civil Rights eras.

Spanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, The Great Dissenter is a “magnificent” (Douglas Brinkley) and “thoroughly researched” (The New York Times) rendering of the American legal system’s most significant failures and most inspiring successes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501188206
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	06/08/2021
Pages:	624
Sales rank:	444,928
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Peter S. Canellos is an award-winning writer and former Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe and Executive Editor of Politico. He is the editor of the New York Times bestseller, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Moral Hero 1

Prologue: "One Man with God Is a Majority" 11

Book I

Chapter 1 A Father's Prophecy 35

Chapter 2 Journey into the Heart of Slavery 53

Chapter 3 Faith and the Founding Fathers 70

Chapter 4 Dread and Dred Scott 92

Chapter 5 The Soul of Kentucky 117

Chapter 6 John vs. John 145

Chapter 7 "Knowledge Is Power" 167

Chapter 8 John, Robert, and Benjamin 192

Chapter 9 "Do-Do Take Care" 216

Book II

Chapter 10 Destiny 233

Chapter 11 Standing Alone 256

Chapter 12 "The Colonel Has Indeed Surprised Us" 271

Chapter 13 In Trusts We Trust 294

Chapter 14 Requiem for the Gilded Age 308

Chapter 15 The Humblest and Most Powerful 329

Chapter 16 The Walls of Segregation 352

Chapter 17 The Constitution Follows the Flag 371

Chapter 18 Freedom in the Workplace 393

Chapter 19 "I Am a Innocent Man" 411

Chapter 20 "Ever May His Name Be Said in Reverence" 425

Book III

Chapter 21 Self-inflicted Wounds 447

Chapter 22 "A Vicarious Atonement" 458

Chapter 23 "Justice Harlan Concurring" 470

Epilogue "Our Basic Legal Creed" 485

Acknowledgments 497

Notes 503

Bibliography 567

Index 573

Photo Credits 611

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/19/2021

Biographer Canellos (Last Lion) intertwines in this original and eye-opening biography the lives of Supreme Court justice John Marshall Harlan and his rumored half-brother, Robert Harlan, who was born a slave. Appointed to the court by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 “as a kind of human olive branch to the South,” Kentucky-born Harlan was the lone dissenting voice in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 and Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, decisions that established the legal precedent for enforcing racial discrimination and segregation. Canellos contends that Harlan’s egalitarian impulses were informed by growing up alongside Robert, the rumored son of Harlan’s father and an enslaved woman, who made a fortune in the California Gold Rush and became a political power broker in Cincinnati. The second half of the book examines the cases that defined Harlan’s judicial legacy and their lasting impact on issues ranging from income tax to civil rights; Canellos notes that Harlan’s dissent in Plessy became a touchstone in Thurgood Marshall’s fight to reverse decades of racial discrimination. Written in lively prose and enriched with colorful character sketches and a firm command of the legal issues involved, this is a masterful introduction to two fascinating figures in American history. Agent: Wendy Strothman, Strothman Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2021

In this biography, veteran journalist Canellos (Last Lion) examines post-Civil War Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911), with the added perspective of modern politics and values. Harlan's several dissenting opinions on civil rights cases were, Canellos argues, extremely prescient and a guide for judicial recognition of civil rights and due process in the 20th century. This book effectively covers Harlan's primary influences: his religious background, Civil War military service for the Union, and upbringing in a slaveholding Kentucky Whig political family. (Harlan didn't free the enslaved people in his household until the 13th Amendment was ratified.) Canellos devotes considerable attention to Harlan's close relationship with half-brother Robert Harlan (1816–97), who was born into slavery at the Harlan family plantation. In the author's telling, Robert, an activist and politician, influenced Justice Harlan to eventually advocate against racial discrimination and to be the lone dissenting justice on Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which established the "separate but equal" doctrine of segregation. VERDICT Canellos has written a skillful biography that illuminates the lives of both John Harlan and Robert Harlan. It will spark the interest of readers looking for more insight on the Reconstruction era. As in Canellos's previous books, the life and times of his subjects come alive here.—Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Library Journal

★ 2021-04-14
A thorough biography of the Supreme Court justice who famously said, “our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”

Canellos, the former executive editor of Politico, delivers the riveting story of a courageous Kentucky lawyer who initiated significant challenges to anti–civil rights measures during an era of ubiquitous bigotry. John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) is remembered especially by his ringing Supreme Court dissents in three disgraceful cases passed by near unanimity: the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, focused on arbitrary discrimination by establishments; Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine of Jim Crow segregation in public spaces for the next 60 years; and Lochner v. New York, a setback for labor legislation that would become especially troublesome during the New Deal. In 1876, Harlan was appointed to the Supreme Court by the recently elected president, Rutherford Hayes, who desired a Southerner for the post—though the Great Dissenter would prove to be a decidedly “eccentric” Southerner. Harlan grew up in a family that owned slaves, including his half brother, Robert, who built a successful career for himself as a freed man. Canellos shows how Robert, “horse-racing impresario, gold rush entrepreneur, financier of Black-owned businesses, world traveler, state representative, and leading Black citizen in Ohio,” had a profound impact on his brother. Despite the fact that the final postwar civil rights amendment had been ratified in 1870, by the time Harlan was appointed, the meaning of all of them was still unclear. Harlan was the lone voice insisting that a “legal revolution had been won on the battlefields of Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Manassas.” His dissent “provided the only shred of faith in the system, the only real evidence that America wasn’t completely separating along color lines.” Given the recent heated debates about Supreme Court justices and civil rights legislation, this expert biography is especially timely and significant.

An impressive work of deep research that moves smoothly along biographical as well as legal lines.

Kirkus Reviews

"Solidly accessible and thoroughly researched, it makes a persuasive case for Harlan’s significance and sometimes reads like a mystery." — The New York Times

"[A] superb biography...Canellos writes with fluency, sensitivity and clarity about complex legal arguments....June is the traditional month for major supreme court decisions. One hopes for the moral courage, clarity of thought and practical vision of John Marshall Harlan." — Guardian

"One of the most captivating judicial biographies I have read. This is partially due to Canellos' skill as a writer. He displays the journalist's ability to identify and capture a good story, and the talent to turn a phrase. But the thing that makes this book exceptional is how Canellos turns the subject of John Marshall Harlan into a poignant story of time and place in American history.” — The Journal of Supreme Court History

"If the power of one’s dissents are the measure of a justice’s greatness, then John Marshall Harlan, who served on the court between 1877 and 1911, deserves a much bigger tribute...[A] sympathetic and well-written new biography." — Christian Science Monitor

"Written in lively prose and enriched with colorful character sketches and a firm command of the legal issues involved, this is a masterful introduction to two fascinating figures in American history. " — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The riveting story of a courageous Kentucky lawyer who initiated significant challenges to anti–civil rights measures during an era of ubiquitous bigotry... An impressive work of deep research that moves smoothly along biographical as well as legal lines." — Kirkus Review (starred review)

"A meticulously researched and acutely analytical biography... Canellos offers a nuanced portrait." —Booklist

"The Great Dissenter is a magnificent biography of the righteous legal trailblazer John Marshall Harlan. Drawing upon a wealth of archival and published sources, deep-diving into the American horror-show of systemic racism, Canellos showcases Harlan as the rare Supreme Court Justice fighting for a more equitable economic system and civil rights for all people. Highly recommended!" — Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University and New York Times bestselling author of Cronkite and American Moonshot

"What a spectacular achievement! Canellos has single handedly resurrected the memory of a largely forgotten American hero. Far ahead of his time, Justice Harlan denounced corporate power and passionately defended the rights of labor, immigrants and African Americans. On the Supreme Court he was a bold and lonely dissenter, but as this book shows, history vindicates him and awards him a place of high honor in the pantheon of American freedom fighters." — Stephen Kinzer, bestselling author of The Brothers and The True Flag

“Peter Canellos has vividly brought to life an absolutely fascinating story that I’m embarrassed I didn’t know: A man raised in a slave-owning family who became one of the greatest champions of civil rights in the history of the Supreme Court, his lone-dissenter opinions cited decades after his death. John Marshall Harlan needs to be added to our pantheon of American heroes.” — Adam Hochschild, bestselling author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury the Chains

"John Marshall Harlan is one of the most fascinating and important figures of modern America, and this book does him justice. Carefully researched, and rewarding even informed readers with rich insight into Harlan’s life and work, The Great Dissenter is a must-read, both for students of the Supreme Court, and for those concerned about the past, present, and future of racial equality in the United States.” — Gabriel J. Chin, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis

"Peter Canellos is a brilliant researcher and writer who takes us on an enlightening tour through history made new in retrospect. His focus on Justice John Harlan’s African-American half-brother Robert Harlan, a former slave whose storied career, financial success, and political and race activism were truly remarkable for the day, adds significance and complexity to his storytelling. Both Harlan men taunted and challenged the governmental powers that be, demanding that America tilt toward realizing its best self. This work is a tour de force and every individual interested in the history of our country’s political and societal steps, both forward and back, should consider it must reading." — Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of A Slave in the White House and The Original Black Elite

"Canellos succeeds in showing us how central Justice Harlan's roots— from his Kentucky background to his half-black brother, Robert Harlan— were to shaping many of his views on controversial social issues and landmark civil rights cases in American history." — Nikki Taylor, Chair of the Department of History, Howard University, and author of Frontiers of Freedom and America's First Black Socialist

"The Great Dissenter is a superb achievement. Based on exhaustive research and well written, this study fully explains the forces that shaped a slaveholding Kentucky Unionist, a forward-looking justice, and a great man." — James C. Klotter, The State Historian of Kentucky, and author of Henry Clay and Kentucky

“Canellos’s tale of the parallel lives of Justice Harlan and his mixed-race brother, Robert Harlan, delve into the complexities of American life in post-Civil War America and make a significant contribution to the history of one of the greatest Justices of the Supreme Court and Robert Harlan, an unsung hero of African American History.” — C. Ellen Connally, Judge (Retired); Former Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Akron College of Law, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio History Connection.

From the Publisher