Letter to American Bar Assoc. asking them apologize for their actions glorifying Sumners.

Page 1 of 5

March 23, 2021 Edward H. Sebesta XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX edwardsebesta@gmail.com Patricia Lee Refo President American Bar Association 321 North Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654 Dear President Refo: The American Bar Association (ABA) lent their prestige to U.S. House Rep. Hatton W. Sumners and honored him in several ways in the first half of the 20th century enabling Sumners to present himself as a credible authority on the American constitution.

On Sept. 13, 1944 the ABA at its Annual Association Dinner in Chicago, gave Hatton W. Sumners its Medal for Conspicuous Service. In reporting on the award, the ABA Journal praised Sumners as some great constitutional expert and public servant and published Sumners short speech of acceptance. [ABA Journal, Vol. 30 No. 10, Oct. 1944, pp. 558559, 574.]

The ABA actions giving Sumners credibility as a great constitutional expert starts much earlier.

1. Hatton W. Sumners was a speaker at the ABA convention, on Oct. 14, 1932 and it was printed in the Nov. 1932 ABA Journal. [“Are We Observing the Natural Laws that Govern Governments?,” ABA Journal, Vol. 18 No. 11, Nov. 1932, pp. 743749.]

2. Hatton W. Sumners was a speaker at the ABA convention, Sept. 29, 1937, and it was printed in the Nov. 1937, ABA Journal. [“Address of Hon. Hatton W. Sumners,” ABA Journal, Vol. 23 No. 11, Nov. 1937, pp. 878-882.]

3. Hatton W. Sumners was a speaker at a joint meeting of the Fourth Circuit and District of Columbia meeting of the Junior Bar Conference which was broadcast over the red network of the National Broadcasting Co. and printed in the May 1938 ABA Journal. [“American Citizenship and Its Supreme Challenge,” ABA Journal, Vol. 24 No. 5, May 1938, pp. 357-360.]

4. Hatton W. Sumners gave a speech about the American constitution on Feb. 1, 1940 in the U.S. House upon the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court. It was reprinted in the April 1940 ABA Journal. [“The Constitution Today,” ABA Journal, Vol. 26 No. 4, April 1940, pp. 285-289, 367-368.]

Page 2 of 5

5. The ABA Section of Mineral Law in their “Proceedings, Addresses and Reports, at the Chicago and Detroit Annual Meetings,” has Hatton W. Sumners’ speech given at the 1942 Detroit Meeting. [“Democracy at War,” pp. 79-85.]

6. A speech Hatton W. Sumners gave to the 2nd New England Conference on Nov. 19, 1943 was printed in the Jan. 1944 ABA Journal. [“American Capacity for SelfGovernment is being Destroyed by Bureaucracy,” ABA Journal, Vol. 30 No. 1, Jan. 1944, pp. 3-5, 48.]

7. In the Sept. 1946 ABA Journal is an article effusively praising Hatton W. Sumners. [“Judge Hatton W. Sumners,” ABA Journal, Vol. 32, No. 9, Sept. 1946, pp. 558-559.]

8. When on May 1, 1947 a portrait of Hatton W. Sumners was placed in the hearing room of the Committee of the Judiciary of the House of Representatives in a ceremony, the June 1947 ABA Journal reported it with praise for Hatton W. Sumners. [“Portrait of Judge Sumners: Placed in His Old Committee Room,” ABA Journal, Vol. 33 No. 6, June 1947, pp. 597-598.]

With the ABA having Sumners giving speeches and giving Sumners credibility dozens and dozens of local and state bar associations would also invite him to speak also giving him credibility as a great constitutional expert.

In these speeches Sumners almost always, if not always, represents his ideas of the constitution as being Anglo-Saxon and associates the ideas he doesn’t approve of as being derived from the pernicious influence of Jazz music. While Sumners was in office Jazz was strongly associated with African Americans. Referring to an idea as being derived or influences by Jazz would be a way of saying that it was African.

For example, in the 1932 speech at the ABA convention Sumners in discussing what he believes is the pernicious influence of Jazz refers to a song, “My Moon Eyed Baby in Watermelon Time,” and then later in the speech, just in case someone in the audience misses the point, he states, “We have jazzed off into the jungles.”

In his 1937 speech at the ABA convention, he attributes the loss of he felt were good Anglo-Saxon constitutional principles to “the grand age of jazz” and that “we have jazzed off to the jungles.” In his 1938 speech to Junior Bar Association, he explains that “we are emerging from the jazzy, irresponsible attitude of the last two decades.”

With the ABA holding up Hatton W. Sumners as some great expert on the Constitution many state and local bar associations, as well as trade associations, asked him to speak where nearly always he was comparing the Anglo-Saxon tradition against jazz and those who “jazzed off into the jungle,” or were observing “watermelon time.” Check.

Sumners’ identification of good government being Anglo-Saxon and bad government being of jazz continues to the end of his career. In 1946 in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York Sumners asserts jazz is supposed to be the cause of

Page 3 of 5

what he alleges is a problem of too much government centralization against good government. [“Address of the Honorable Hatton Sumners,” to New York State Chamber of Commerce at their meeting of April 4, 1946, “Bulletin of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York,” Vol. 37 No. 9, April 1946, pages 349 – 363. Magna Charta references page 355. Jazz age references page 357.]

In his book, “The Private Citizen and His Democracy,” [Southwestern Legal Foundation, © 1959] Sumners starts with the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus in his AngloSaxon origins story of the principles of American government as he understands them and praises them. [pp. 10-11] The loss of these principles Sumners blames on Jazz, stating, “This was a part of the grand age of jazz—not only jazz music—jazz art—jazz literature, and jazz philosophy, but jazz citizenship and jazz statesmenship, the passing of the States out of consideration as responsible agencies of democratic government”. [pp. 102-103].

Sumners racist agenda was well known. He was praised in the press for defeating the Dyer anti-lynching act in 1922. He had spoken out many times using the most inflammatory language prior to his first speaking engagement with the ABA in 1932. It would be obvious to the leadership that they would be empowering Sumners’ racist agenda.

In 1944, when the Supreme Court struck down the Texas white only primary, Sumners’ supporters became angry because Sumners wasn’t acting the role of the angry racist in public. Sumners explains in a series of letters in 1944 that his strategy to defend white supremacy in the South was to frame the issues in terms of defending the American constitution so that those outside the South could oppose a civil rights measure as part of defending the constitution. I am somewhat surprised that he had to explain this to anybody, it would be rather obvious to anyone with even a modest intelligence. Surely it would have been obvious to the leadership of the ABA in the 1930s and 40s, even without Sumners’ references to jazz and Anglo-Saxons.

Sumners writings and speeches about the origins of the constitution and government are a ludicrous mess. Yet, the ABA gave him credibility, “watermelon time,” “jazzing off into the jungle,” and all of it. Sumners strategy of defeating civil rights measures, in particular federal anti-lynching legislation, under the guise of defending the American constitution was given credibility and therefore enabled by the ABA. The ABA has culpability in those lynchings as much as if they showed up and gave out a rope.

Sumners in a letter to R.E.L. Saner, President of the ABA in 1924, does complain that the ABA did pass a resolution in favor of federal anti-lynching legislation. So, it seems that the ABA did at least once act in favor of anti-lynching legislation. However, don’t let that be an excuse to evade culpability for the ABA’s actions. The ABA may have made some gestures while at the same time they were primarily responsible in constructing a major force for the defeat of civil rights legislation, that is Hatton W. Sumners, represented by the ABA as some great constitutional expert.

Page 4 of 5

I enclose, “Excuses Made for Honoring White Supremacist Hatton W. Sumners,” to encourage you not to make these same excuses.

You will be able to find much more information about Sumners online at http://templeofdemocracy.com/hatton-w-sumners.html.

In particular my draft book chapters on Sumners that have been written so far are at: http://templeofdemocracy.com/reactionaryracistsumners.html I ask that the American Bar Association do the following; 1. Retract the Medal for Conspicuous Service given to Hatton W. Sumners in 1944 by the American Bar Association.

2. Apologize for the American Bar Associations actions in enabling Sumners and being a forum for his racist speeches.

3. Advise law schools not to be involved with awarding Hatton W. Sumners scholarships.

4. Advise state and local bar associations to also apologize for enabling summers and providing a forum for his racist speeches.

5. Avoid involvements with organizations which honor Sumners, that is the Sumners Foundation and advise state and local bar associations, educational institutions, cultural institutions, and others not to be involved with them either.

The ABA has serious complicity in the maintenance of white supremacy in the first half of the 20th century in America with its enabling of Hatton W. Sumners and his continued glorification today.

It is all very well that the ABA has programs to address racism, assure inclusion and diversity now in 2021, but there is the toxic legacy of Sumners in Texas and elsewhere in museums, university law schools, and the Sumners Foundation finding its way into the schools.

The future can be sincerely addressed, when the past is sincerely addressed. I look forward to the American Bar Association taking ownership of its past with the five actions I have recommended.

Sincerely yours,

Edward H. Sebesta CC: See next page.

Page 5 of 5 No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Title President-Elect Chair; House of Delegates Immediate Past President Kevin I. Shepherd Secretary District 15 Goal III Woman M-A-L Judicial M-A-L District 6 District 16 District 4 Goal III Minority M-A-L District 14 Section M-A-L Section M-A-L Section M-A-L District 5 Section M-A-L Section M-A-L Section M-A-L Goal III Woman M-A-L District 10 District 17 Young Lawyer M-A-L District 18 District 1 District 9 Section M-A-L Goal III LGBT M-A-L Young Lawyer M-A-L District 3 Law student M-A-L District 12 District 11 District 19 District 8 District 13 Section M-A-L District 17 Section M-A-L Minority M-A-L

Name Reginald Turner Barbara Howard Judy Perry Martinez Treasurer Pauline Weaver Mark H. Alcott Lynn M. Allingham Hon. Frank J. Bailey Hon. Pamila J. Brown David W. Clark John C. Cruden Marvin S.C. Dang Andrew J. Demetriou Lucian E. Dervan Michael W. Drumke James M. Durant III Charles English Jr. Bonnie E. Fought H. Russell Frisby Jr. Koji F. Fukumura Vickie Yates Brown Glisson Patrick G. Goetzinger Rew R. Goodenow Sheena R. Hamilton Christine H. Hickey Russell F. Hilliard Susan M. Holden Sheila S. Hollis James J.S. Holmes Shayda Z. Le Lynn Fontaine Newsome Johnnie Nguyen Linda S. Parks Beverly J. Quail Andrew M. Schpak Laura B. Sharp Charles J. Vigil Howard T. Wall III William K. Wlsenberg Stephen J. Wermiel Michele Wong Krause