Book review: Keep Swinging

New Yorkers during the Pataki and Spitzer years will recall the disproportionate influence of “three men in a room” to determine state policy. Keep Swinging : a memoir of politics and justice invites readers into that room with Joe Bruno, New York Senate Majority Leader from 1994 to 2008. Beginning with his youth in Glens Falls, Senator Bruno describes the experiences that shaped his 32-year career in state government. Several chapters recount specific “horse trading” sessions with Assemblyman Sheldon Silver and the Governor’s office as they negotiated the State’s budget. The final chapters of the book address the senator’s 2008 retirement, and the controversial prosecution he faced for honest services fraud. Joe Bruno, a Korean War veteran, died in October 2020 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

The Library is grateful to our colleague Neil Campbell of Mental Hygiene Legal Service not only for the generous donation of this memoir, but for graciously accepting the request to provide the book review!

Library closing

The Appellate Division Law Library will be closed to the public starting Tuesday, March 17th due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Any patron who has material currently checked out will receive extended due dates at no charge because of the closure.

If you need assistance, you can email the reference desk at ad4ref@nycourts.gov and someone will assist you. PDF documents can be sent to you for a minimal fee. We are here to help you and apologize for any inconvenience.

Stay well!

Books & food

Books and food are some of the best things in life, but when enjoyed together ... not so good.

New NYSBA CLEs

Recent acquisitions of NYSBA CLE digital media:

The New Discovery Law: A Criminal Justice Revolution
Handling Law Enforcement Investigations as Corporate Counsel
Auto & Truck Claims, Accidents & Litigation (2019)
Construction Site Accident Claims & Litigation (2019)
Basics of Elder Law and Special Needs Practice (2019)
Intermediate Trusts and Estates Planning (2019)
Succession Planning: Retirement 101 (2019)
Matrimonial Law Basics (2019)
Matrimonial Trial Institute I: A Mock Financial Trial (2019)
Workers Compensation Law Update (2019)
Advanced Real Estate Topics (2019)
Honing Your Deposition Skills: Basics and Beyond (2019)
Gain the Edge: Negotiation Strategies for Lawyers (2019)

Black History Month

Harriet Tubman (William Henry Johnson, 1945)

Researching African American "firsts" in the law, we came upon the story of William Henry Johnson, in at least one scholar's assessment the first black attorney in the United States. And an amazing story it is, as wide of breadth and full of incident as a nineteenth-century novel, from his youth as a jockey on a plantation, acquaintance with presidents, escape from slavery, a shipwreck, and eluding of slave catchers with the assistance of John Jacob Astor, through to the dogged pursuit of learning that culminated in a long legal career and the abiding respect of his community in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Looking for more on this remarkable yet little-known individual, we discovered another remarkable, little-known person by the same name - a "ghost of history," in one writer's phrase, who served as the Albany correspondent for Frederick Douglass's North Star. This William Henry Johnson was instrumental in the passage of legislation in New York State prohibiting discrimination against African Americans in life insurance and in public education. His autobiography is available as a free e-book for those who may wish to read more about him. You can also find online a speech he delivered in Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1859, whose theme Rochesterians will no doubt recognize as similar to Douglass's "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech of seven years earlier, Independence Day having long been recognized by abolitionists as a powerful rhetorical opportunity.

Imagine our surprise when we then learned that President Lincoln's personal valet was named ...... William Henry Johnson. Johnson accompanied Lincoln to Gettysburg for the delivery of the Gettysburg Address. On their return, Lincoln fell ill with smallpox and Johnson nursed him back to health. Poignantly, Johnson also contracted the disease and succombed shortly thereafter.

At this point the rabbit hole beckoned and we jumped in: we weren't going to stop until we'd found as many African Americans of historical note with that name as we could. There were three more. One was a World War I soldier, more commonly known by his middle name, who fought off a German raiding party of as many as twenty-four men in hand-to-hand combat. Another was a painter who experimented with a diverse range of styles and subjects, from impressionistic still-lifes and landscapes to the work for which he is best known, African American themes in the tradition of American folk art. A substantial collection of his work is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Last is the figure known as Zip the Pinhead, a performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey sideshows and at Coney Island. Exhibited as a "missing link" in the overtly racist context of such entertainment and long thought to be microcephalic, Zip may well have had far more agency in his life than previously credited. For one thing, he saved a girl from drowning at Coney Island. For another, he managed to die a wealthy man. His final words to his sister were reputed to be, "Well, we fooled ‘em for a long time."

A shared name is a thin thread to tie any thoughts together and it's certainly not the intention here to sum up with any grand conclusions. It has been gratifying, though, to follow the serendipitous turns this research took. It's reminded us once again of the astounding determination, struggle, and creativity that mark black history in the United States. And it has offered an opportunity to discover and contemplate the life stories of people who deserve to be better known.

February holiday closings

We will be closed
Wednesday, February 12th,
for Lincoln's Birthday
and
Monday, February 17th,
for Presidents' Day.

New NYSBA CLEs & more

Recent acquisitions of NYSBA CLE digital media are now available for check-out.

Accounting for Lawyers (2019)
Avoiding Contract Drafting Landmines (2019)
Commercial Mortgage Foreclosures & Workouts (2019)
A Critical Review of Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 (2019)
Family Court Practical Skills: Support, Custody Offense (2019)
New York Appellate Practice (2019)
Premises Liability (2019)

Also on the shelves, the latest National Business Institute upstate New York seminar manuals. You'll find these and a wide selection of manuals of interest to local practitioners in our New York Treatises area, at call number KFN 5079 N356.

Estate Planning and Administration From A to Z
Gun Law in New York
Handling the Workers' Compensation Case From Start to Finish
Human Resource Law: The Ultimate Guide
Land Use Law: Current Issues in Subdivision and Zoning
Legal Descriptions, Title Insurance and Surveys in Real Estate Transactions
Medicaid Planning
Pain and Suffering Damages in Personal Injury
Resolving Boundary Disputes in New York
The Rules of Evidence: A Practical Toolkit