From: David Evans <...evans@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:44 AM
Subject: The Presidency & Harvard Law School
To: perry.gregg@post.harvard.edu
Perry,
While it is far too early to predict who will be the next President of
the United States, it's never too early to philosophize about
historical perspective. It is, therefore, interesting to reflect on
the alumni of Harvard Law School who have risen to that exalted
political plain. Frankly, the plural noun "alumni" is inappropriate.
The singular noun "alumnus" applies here because only one graduate of
Harvard Law School has been President of the United States and he was
the nineteenth, Rutherford B. Hayes (R., Ohio; HLS 1845). As any
student of U. S. History knows, Hayes presided over the removal of
federal troops sent to the South to ensure the rights of newly-freed
African Americans. This essentially ended the Reconstruction period
and gave rise to a century of de jure Jim Crow racism.
It would be poetic, ironic and maybe even morally corrective if the
second alumnus of Harvard Law School to attain that high office would
be an African American in the person of Barack H. Obama (D., Illinois;
HLS 1991).
Just a thought. :-)
Best regards,
David