Finding Hope in the Past

Author

Melanie Proctor
January 19, 2025

The United States is already in turmoil, and people have begun to obey the oligarchs and their puppet. But others are speaking out and/or resigning in protest.[1]

I know something about resigning for principled reasons. In 2022, I resigned from a state civil service career.[2] Although not a difficult decision, it was still painful. I loved the opportunities that statutorily independent civil rights agency could provide: I was able to bring some measure of justice for a farm laborer who survived horrific assaults and I led litigation against a gaming company that resulted in one of the largest monetary and injunctive settlements in history.[3] But when it became clear that work was under attack from within, it was time to go and to do so in a way that protected pending cases.

During my sabbatical from the law, I finally pursued family history and became a professional genealogist.[4] Learning about ancestors who lived through history brings it to life. And as I research my own family history and work on projects for others, I occasionally find stories about people who spoke boldly.

101 years ago, a former judge stepped down from his post as dean of the University of Texas law school to return to teaching.[5] Judge John C. Townes said of his decision:

“It is almost impossible for courts to render justice today. We need in our courtroom more of the rugged honesty which formerly was our priceless treasure.”[6]

He mourned people willing to perjure themselves, and continued:

“Love of easy living is causing lawyers to abandon the ethics of their profession and the dictates of their own consciences. Even the public is “in” on the secret that most testimony nowdays [sic] is framed in advance by attorneys, the witnesses merely telling on the stand what their lawyers order them to say.”[7]

Judge Townes was born in Alabama but lived in Texas by age 8 and was the son of a wealthy enslaver.[8] He supported women’s suffrage: a diary entry by Texas suffragist Jane Y. McCallum describes a social encounter at a party for a departing professor who was “leaving before being muzzled or fired:”

“…after [a] meeting last night at Y.M.C.A. old Judge Townes—bless his heart—brought me home in his electric [car] and talked a half hour afterward….(says he could never again look those hundreds of young lawyers he has helped train in the face[)]. I never dreamed a human being could think on so low a plane as University State regent McReynolds who said to Judge Townes words to this effect, ‘You University professors are the ones to blame for its (University) being in politics. You vote and you’ve no business to. Its there you get it [the university] in politics because you don’t often vote for the man who wins, and of course the one who does has it in for you and the University—you ought not to vote.’

Who can think such a thing without almost bursting with rage! I have Judge T’s word for it.”[9]

Judge Townes was beloved by his community; it is doubtful he bore any real risk by excoriating the legal profession from the outside.[10] Still, his 1923 statement caught my attention. The United States survived before, and we can survive now—if people resist.

That’s how I’ll use this space, to find the stories of the lesser-known truth-tellers, the people who fought on behalf of others and did not take the easy road. I hope these reminders from the past will inspire the heroes we need now.


[1] Former Washington Post political cartoonist Ann Telnaes recently resigned after the Washington Post killed her cartoon criticizing the oligarchs—including Post owner Jeff Bezos. Ann Telnaes, “Why I’m quitting the Washington Post” (anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post), 3 Jan 2025. Telanes’ resignation has been followed by a wave of others. David Folkenflik, “Will Lewis’ First Year at ‘Washington Post’: Cancellations, red ink and an exodus,” National Public Radio (https://www.npr.org/2025/01/15/nx-s1-5258221/washington-post-will-lewis-jeff-bezos-year-one). All websites last visited 18 January 2025.

[3] “Farm Labor Contractor to Pay $750,000 to Resolve DFEH Sexual Harassment Lawsuit” (b4cfd6b7-d430-415e-8ed1-a21a324e2ae2.usrfiles.com/ugd/b4cfd6_515ff8fd01314ca083ce2b4ce552f6a6.pdf). “Riot Games, Inc. Agrees to $100 Million Settlement and Systemic Reforms to Resolve Allegations of Workplace Sex Discrimination and Harassment” (b4cfd6b7-d430-415e-8ed1-a21a324e2ae2.usrfiles.com/ugd/b4cfd6_d5f10eaa286941d7ab009043b151f5b0.pdf).

[4] Passiflora Research, Inc. (www.passifloraresearch.com).

[5] “U.S. Justice is Crumbling Jurist Thinks,” Beaver Falls (Penn.) Tribune, 12 Feb 1923, p. 3, cols. 1-2;  imaged, OldNews.com (www.oldnews.com).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] 1860 U.S. census, Travis, Texas, population schedule, Precinct 15, page 256, dwelling 256, family 256, John Townes (8) in household of E.D. Townes; imaged, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7667/records/35511509). 1860 U.S. census, Travis, Texas, slave schedule, Precinct 3, page 463, E.D. Townes, owner; imaged, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7668/records/92416740).

[9] Janet G. Humphrey, editor, A Texas suffragist: diaries and writings of Jane Y. McCallum (Austin, Texas : E.C. Temple, 1988), 86–87 (bracketed text and emphasis in original); imaged in part, Internet Archive (archive.org/details/texassuffragistd0000mcca/page/86).) After women obtained the right to vote, Ms. McCallum advocated for “school funding, maternal and child healthcare, restrictions on child labor, illiteracy, prison reform, and stricter prohibition laws.” “Jane Yelvington McCallum, 1877–1957,” Wander Women Project (wanderwomenproject.com/women/jane-yelvington-mccallum : viewed 11 January 2025). a

[10] The main building at University of Texas at Austin School of Law is dedicated in his honor. “History of Texas Law,” University of Texas at Austin School of Law (https://law.utexas.edu/history-of-texas-law).