It took a long time. The two authors do not always think alike. They work differently. They certainly write differently. But they make a great team and have finished one book and are embarking on another. They are Linda Gugin and James St. Clair, both professors at IU Southeast.
The finished book is a biography of the late Hoosier U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton: Sherman Minton: New Deal Senator, Cold War Justice, published by the Indiana Historical Society.
St. Clair, who teaches journalism, and Gugin, a political scientist, started the book in 1991, encouraged in their endeavor by a grant from the historical society.
The two laugh and tease about their partnership as authors. Their writing
styles are quite different. Gugin admits to being verbose and tells of
writing a 130-page chapter which St. Clair edited down to 30 pages. She
knew the chapter needed to be shortened, but she was stunned by the cuts.
Still, the "just the facts" journalist and the more wordy political
scientist work together without rancor.
Minton was born in 1890 in Georgetown and died in 1965. He graduated from IU and Yale University Law School. In 1933, he was elected to the Senate, where he served until 1940. Later he was an administrative assistant to President Franklin Roosevelt.
In 1949, President Harry Truman appointed Minton to the Supreme Court.
One of Gugin and St. Clair's accomplishments with the biography is to explain some of the seeming contradictions in Justice Minton. Many liberals in the 1950s were disappointed in Minton and heaped criticism on him, charging that he neglected individual rights. Minton was more complex than they had anticipated. The authors point out that Minton's views were very much influenced by his upbringing in southern Indiana. His experiences there planted the seeds for both liberal and conservative tendencies. They also shaped his down-to-earth personality, which was punctuated with a hearty sense of humor.
"His liberalism was most evident by his belief that the federal government had to actively help society's disadvantaged," the professors wrote in the preface of the book. The "New Deal senator" was a supporter of government programs designed to improve the conditions of common people. But Justice Minton also valued order and needed certainty. Thus, he believed precedent was important for stability. He also believed strong government was necessary for the preservation of order. These beliefs resulted in his upholding restrictions on civil liberties and the rights of individuals.
St. Clair and Gugin have been celebrating their book's publication with book signings. And in September, they were honored by the Floyd County Historical Society at a dinner.
The celebrations are encouraging them for their next endeavor, a book about Fred Vinson, who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court while Minton was there. One IU connection to Vinson is William Oliver, retired professor of law at IUB, who was one of Vinson's law clerks. After Vinson died, Oliver continued as clerk to the new Chief Justice Earl Warren before joining IUB law faculty in 1954.
Editor's note: Minton was a staunch supporter of equal rights and proclaimed that the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, ending segregation in public schools, was the most important decision during his tenure on the court.
For Home Pages coverage of the 40th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School, Little Rock, Ark., go to this archival Web site:
http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/0926/text/remember.htm
For more on Minton, go to this site:
http://www2.ihs1830.org/ihs1830/minton.htm
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