PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
One of the early settlers of Atlanta was a man named Robert
Webster. You may not have heard of him but his story is
found in Marc Wortman’s recent book, “The Bonfire” which
is a fascinating history of the people of Atlanta during the
civil war.
Through a series of accidents and circumstances, Robert
Webster came in slavery to Atlanta. When the man who
brought him here, Ben Yancey, was appointed Ambassador
to Argentina, where slavery had been abolished, Robert
Webster cut a deal with Yancey to let him open a barbershop
on Marietta Street in exchange for paying him rent. Robert
Webster was gifted in business and he soon had two shops
and a house downtown. By 1856, he had amassed a fortune
of $16,000 and was one of Atlanta’s wealthiest citizens.
On September 2, 1864, the day after Atlanta fell in the
Civil War, Atlanta Mayor James Calhoun rode out with a
surrender party from the city to meet General Sherman.
Among the group was William Markham, whose great great
great nephew may be here today—Baxter Jones. Mayor
Calhoun included Robert Webster in that group that he
chose to represent the City. Robert Webster had become
one of the leaders of the city. He came here as a slave but
that did not define him, and he and others like him formed
the nucleus of the black business community in Atlanta that
accounts for so much of this city’s success.
Friends, far be it from me to sugar coat the terrible history
of slavery and Jim Crow in Atlanta, and the suffering that
caused. But I love the story of Robert Webster because of
what it illustrates about the people and character of this city.
If you have something to offer, Atlanta wants you and will
reward you.
Many of you may be familiar with Henry Grady, for whom
Grady Hospital and Grady High School are named. He
was the editor of The Atlanta Constitution, and more than
anyone helped restore Atlanta’s place in the nation after its
destruction. In a famous 1886 speech in New York, he said,
“I want to say to General Sherman…that from the ashes he
left us in 1864 we have raised a brave and beautiful city.”
See Russell S. Bonds, War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle
and Burning of Atlanta.
What was true then is true now, and it is why we have the
mythical bird, the Phoenix, rising from the ashes, on the seal
of our city and on the seal of our bar association.
In our resilience, our optimism and openness, I have always
thought that more than any other place in the South, Atlanta
is fundamentally an American City.
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THE ATLANTA LAWYER
June/July 2013
Part of that lies in our geography—we are the biggest
crossroads in America. Hartsfield Jackson Airport is our
nation’s busiest.
Captured in our city’s character is a spirit of tolerance
and cooperation among all people. Whoever you are and
wherever you are from, you are wanted in Atlanta. It makes
perfect sense to me that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his
great legacy of civil rights for all people, came from the City
of Atlanta.
So as Atlantans, we are the heirs of a powerful legacy.
Finally, we should remember the power of our legacy
as lawyers.
Again I turn to Alexis de Tocqueville, who observed, “Scarcely
any question arises in the United States which does not
become, sooner or later, a subject of judicial debate;
hence all parties are obliged to borrow the ideas, and even
the language usual in judicial proceedings in their daily
controversies.”
He goes on to explain that the language and ideas of lawyers
penetrates outside the walls of schools and courts of justice
“into the bosom of society.”
There are two critical ideas that form the heart of our
profession and that give me the greatest cause for hope in
our future.
First, we are the guardians of the principal that we should
decide all controversies of public and private life based on
the evidence, the facts.
Whatever role we play as advocates, counselors, or judges,
we are committed to resolving all matters—not on the basis
of passion, religious belief, or cronyism, but on the basis of
the evidence.
When he was a young lawyer in Boston, John Adams was
called upon to defend the British soldiers who had been
put on trial for murder as a result of what was known as the
Boston massacre. The soldiers were acquitted because
John Adams persuaded a Boston jury that the evidence
showed the soldiers were being attacked by the crowd and
were justified in firing in self-defense. Adams told the jury,
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes,
our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot
alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Second we are fiduciaries and guardians of the American
creed:
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association