Paul Moke Spent Six Years Researching One of 20th Century's Pivotal Figures
Paul Moke’s “labor of love” came to fruition this fall when he opened his mailbox to find a copy of his newly published biography of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.
Earl Warren and the Struggle for Justice was six years in the making as Moke, a professor of political science and criminal justice at Wilmington College with a Ph.D. and law degree, spent summers and holiday breaks painstakingly researching the life of a man he considers a pivotal figure of the 20th century.
(PICTURED) Paul Moke displays a copy of his Earl Warren biography, Earl Warren and the Struggle for Justice.
Warren (1891-1974) served as California attorney general and governor in the 1940s before Pres. Dwight Eisenhower selected him to serve as the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1953. He served through 1969. Warren was a reformer and progressive Republican in a period that saw numerous advances in civil rights gained through Supreme Court decisions.
Moke ranks him among the top four most influential chief justices in American history, but, in his view, Warren is unparalleled as an advocate for fairness in criminal justice and other institutions in American society.
“He ranks at the top among chief justices as far as morality and ethics because of his willingness to take on the legacy of racial inequality and Jim Crow,” he said. “His was an era of reform and I think the reforms were needed and successful.”
While the book presents additional insight into the work of the Warren Commission as a result of newly released files surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Moke finds most interesting what he uncovered regarding Warren’s evolution of views on race and social justice.
Indeed, Moke draws a connection between Warren’s knowledge of the so-called “untouchable” class in India’s caste system and the racial segregation laws in the South. Also, he delved into the relationship between the then-governor and his African-American chauffeur, which provided Warren with a greater appreciation for and insight into the struggle of black persons in the United States.
“I think that really changed Earl Warren’s views on race and helped inform his views on racial justice,” Moke said, noting that previous biographers didn’t delve as deeply into those aspects relating to Warren’s personal progression on race. “I am convinced that Warren intended these documents (regarding the ‘untouchables’) to eventually be found in the Library of Congress.”
Moke spent weeks there studying Warren’s Supreme Court papers, as well researching files on his top positions in California government at the University of California at Berkeley Library and materials on the Warren Commission at the National Archives in Washington D.C.
Warren wrote or oversaw many of the Supreme Court’s landmark cases of the 20th century, including Brown v. Board of Education (public school desegregation, 1954), Gideon v. Wainwright (right to legal counsel, 1963), Reynolds v. Sims (legislative mal-apportionment, 1964) and Miranda v. Arizona (rights of one taken into custody, 1966).
Moke also addresses Warren’s “acrimonious relationship” with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover during the investigation into the Kennedy assassination, as well as steps the chief justice took in organizing the court and his relationship with his associate justices. He sees the court’s 1967 decision legalizing interracial marriage as precedent for this summer’s decision on same-sex marriage.
“It was quite a bit of work, yet I loved it,” he said. “It was a labor of love getting to know Earl Warren and his family.”
Moke thinks his audience for Earl Warren and the Struggle for Justice will include undergraduates interested in studying constitutional law, as well as racial desegregation, and criminal justice reforms. The book is available at Amazon and other online booksellers. The publisher will consider issuing a paperback edition if the hardcover edition generates sufficient demand.
And after six years, Moke might not be finished with Earl Warren. He is considering writing a play based upon the final two months of the former chief justice’s life.
“There are other aspects of his life I’d like to explore,” he said.
