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Mary Ellen Maatman

Selected Works

Legal Profession

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Lee’S Atticus Finch Represents A Will To Change, Mary Ellen Maatman Jul 2015

Lee’S Atticus Finch Represents A Will To Change, Mary Ellen Maatman

Mary Ellen Maatman

No abstract provided.


Lawyering In The Lion's Mouth: The Story Of S.D. Redmond And Pruitt V. State, Mary Ellen Maatman Dec 2013

Lawyering In The Lion's Mouth: The Story Of S.D. Redmond And Pruitt V. State, Mary Ellen Maatman

Mary Ellen Maatman

Lawyering in the Lion’s Mouth: The Story of S.D. Redmond and Pruitt v. State unearths a forgotten case with facts worthy of a William Faulkner novel. Set in rural Mississippi, the case involved alleged interracial adultery and infanticide. Luella Williamson, a white woman who killed her baby, told authorities that an African American man named Ervin Pruitt was the child’s father, and claimed he told her to kill the child for fear he would be lynched. She pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Her alleged lover, who denied both the relationship and any involvement in the …


Speaking Truth To Memory: Lawyers And Resistance To The End Of White Supremacy, Mary Ellen Maatman Dec 2005

Speaking Truth To Memory: Lawyers And Resistance To The End Of White Supremacy, Mary Ellen Maatman

Mary Ellen Maatman

This article critically examines how elite lawyers built and defended the legal framework for White Supremacy in the Deep South both before and after Brown v. Board of Education. Although turn of the century commentators freely discussed how lawyers blocked African Americans' access to the ballot box, time has largely obliterated that story from our profession's memory. Some recent legal commentators have discussed post-Brown massive resistance, but few have specifically considered the role of lawyers qua lawyers in that movement. In contrast, this article analytically connects these eras to a decades-long program of legal work dedicated to defending and attempting …