Herbert Brownell, Jr.

Herbert Brownell
62nd United States Attorney General
In office January 21, 1953 – October 23, 1957
President	Dwight Eisenhower
Deputy	William Rogers
Preceded by	James McGranery
Succeeded by	William Rogers
Chairperson of the Republican National Committee
In office 1944–1946
Preceded by	Harrison Spangler
Succeeded by	Carroll Reece
Member of the New York State Assembly from the New York County, 10th District district
In office January 1, 1933 – December 31, 1937
Preceded by	Langdon W. Post
Succeeded by	MacNeil Mitchell
Personal details
Born	February 20, 1904 Nemaha County, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	May 1, 1996 (aged 92) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Doris McCarter (1934–1979) Marion Taylor (1987–1989)
Children	Joan Ann Thomas McCarter James Barker
Alma mater	University of Nebraska, Lincoln Yale University

Herbert Brownell, Jr. (February 20, 1904 – May 1, 1996), was an attorney and Republican Party organizer who served from 1953 to 1957 the Attorney General in the administration of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Biography

Early life

Brownell, one of the seven children of Herbert and May Miller Brownell, was born in Nemaha County, Nebraska near the town of Peru. His father, Herbert Brownell, Sr., was a professor and author at the Peru State Normal School in education and physical sciences. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Nebraska in 1924, and, in his senior year, being a member of the Society of Innocents, Brownell attended Yale Law School, earning his law degree in 1927. While at the University of Nebraska he joined The Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Brownell's brother, Samuel Brownell, served as U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1953 through 1956. Susan B. Anthony was Herbert Brownell's cousin.

Career

Brownell was admitted to the bar in New York, and began his practice in New York City. In February 1929, he joined the law firm of Lord Day & Lord in New York, and except for periods of public service remained with them until his retirement in 1989. He married Doris McCarter on June 16, 1934. They had four children (Joan Brownell, Ann Brownell, Thomas McCarter Brownell, and James Barker Brownell) and remained together until McCarter's death on June 12, 1979. He married his second wife Marion Taylor in 1987, but the couple separated and divorced in December 1989.

Besides his law practice, Brownell had a long and active political career as a Republican. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 10th D.) in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1937. In 1942, he was the campaign manager for Thomas E. Dewey's election as governor of New York. He also managed Dewey's 1944 and 1948 campaigns for president. From 1944 to 1946 he was chairman of the Republican National Committee, where he focused on modernizing the RNC with advanced polling methods and fundraising techniques. He was credited by many as being instrumental in helping the Republicans to gain control of the United States Congress in the 1946 off-year elections.

Political career

Brownell was instrumental in convincing General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President of the United States, and worked in Eisenhower's 1952 campaign. Along with Thomas Dewey, Brownell was instrumental in Eisenhower's selection of Richard Nixon as his vice-presidential running mate. (Source: Earl Mazo, "Richard Nixon: A Political & Personal Portrait," p. 89, 96). Eisenhower appointed Brownell Attorney General. He served from January 21, 1953 until October 23, 1957. Early in his term, he was involved in several landmark civil rights cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. Although it was weakened by the United States Senate, he drafted the legislative proposal that ultimately became the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was the first civil rights law enacted since 1875. Because of his strong stance in favor of civil rights, Brownell became very unpopular in the South. Eisenhower wished to nominate Brownell to the Supreme Court when vacancies occurred in 1957 and 1958 but felt he could not because segregationists in the Senate would fight and defeat the nomination.

Brownell stepped down as attorney general only after his advice was followed in the Little Rock desegregation case. Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, reflects on Brownell's tenure:

...Brownell had stuck by his guns for the hard line on the integration dispute. His advice had been followed. The government was committed with no easy way to extricate itself. Many people on both sides of the controversy were becoming increasingly unhappy. I am inclined to believe that while Mr. Brownell was genuinely pleased with the policy, he was grievously disappointed that it had not achieved better results. The impasse with Governor Orval Faubus may have contributed substantially to his decision to retire. We may not get the answer until and if he writes his memoirs, but I doubt it even then because the Herbert Brownell I grew to know would not write about his personal secrets. Mr. Brownell was both praised and condemned as he departed from office....^[1]

In 1965, Brownell chaired a committee to find civilians who would serve on the first impartial Civilian Complaint Review Board of New York City. It was the first such citizen oversight of police in the country.

Brownell also took himself out of the running for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to replace Earl Warren in 1969 with the eventual replacement being Warren E. Burger.^[2]

Brownell later served as the United States representative to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and from 1972 to 1974, he was special U.S. envoy to Mexico for negotiations over the Colorado River.

In addition to many honors and other civic roles, Brownell was President of the New York City Bar Association in 1982. From 1986 to 1989 he served on the Commission for the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. He died of cancer at the New York Hospital Cornell-Medical Center in Manhattan, New York on May 1, 1996, at the age of ninety-two.

Further reading

• Herbert Brownell and John P. Burke; Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell; 1993, University of Kansas Press; ISBN 0-7006-0590-8.

References

1. Osro Cobb, Osro Cobb of Arkansas: Memoirs of Historical Significance, Carol Griffee, ed. (Little Rock, Arkansas: Rose Publishing Company, 1989), p. 251
2. Dean, J.W. (2002). The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment That Redefined the Supreme Court. Free Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780743229791. Retrieved 2015-09-13.

External links

• Papers of Herbert Brownell Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library