Connecting Students to the World: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
On May 20, 1998, the Honorable Thelton Henderson, Jr., U.S. District Court Judge in San Francisco participated in an on-line exchange with students from Brian Simmons 11th grade history class at Thurgood Marshal Academic High School in San Francisco. Prior to the chat, students participated in a workshop conducted by Beth Atkin and Harry Kreisler. They discussed a chapter from Ms. Atkin's book Voices from the Streets, focusing in their discussion on the civil rights of a Cambodian refugee. They also discussed Harry Kreisler's Conversations with History interview with Judge Henderson, "Remembering the Civil Rights Movement."When an on-line chat in synchronous time became impossible because the San Francisco ethernet connection failed, the students participated in an asynchronous question-and-answer session using e-mail and telephone. Relying on a wireless modem, Harry Kreisler and Beth Atkin directed the questions to Judge Henderson and transmitted his answers back to the classroom. The twelve students were organized into three groups focusing on these topics: Judge Henderson's background; the impact of the civil rights movement on his life and career, and his views on the civil rights of young people.
What was your childhood like?
I had a fairly normal childhood for a kid growing up in the ghetto. During those days, we were largely unaware that we growing up deprived of many of the opportunities that kids across town had available to them.
How were your grades?
My grades mostly B's, with some A's and some C's. I have to confess that I didn't study as hard as I should have. I probably could have gotten more A's and fewer C's had I applied myself. It wasn't until I got to college that I really appreciated the fact that grades were important in helping you achieve your goals. And so in college and law school, for the first time, I actually studied as hard as I could.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I didn't have a specific career goal. However, fortunately for me, my mother had a clearer view of what I was going to be. When I was growing up, most African American kids had as a goal, if they went to college, to be a teacher or a perhaps a social worker or perhaps a probation officer or something in the social services. There were very few black professionals. Fortunately, for me, my mother insisted that I study to be either a doctor or a lawyer. When I got to college and took a few laboratory courses, which I hated, I decided that I would be a lawyer.
Did your experiences as a child make you want to be a judge?
No. In fact, it would have been entirely unrealistic for me to want to be a judge, because there were no African American judges. So even though I wanted to be a lawyer, the kind of lawyer I wanted to be was the African American lawyer who worked in our community. I was totally unaware of lawyers who handled securities regulation (stocks and bonds) or tax lawyers or all the other kinds of lawyers who practiced but not in the African American community. When I graduated from law school in 1962, William Hastie had not been appointed as the first African American federal judge. He was appointed by President Kennedy a couple of years later.
How long were you a lawyer?
Eighteen years.
Next page: The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement
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