Morris B. Abram

Morris Berthold Abram (born 19th June 1918 in Fitzgerald , Georgia , d. 16th March 2000 in Geneva ) was a American lawyer and advocate for civil and human rights .

Abram led a 14-year battle against an electoral rule in the US state of Georgia that gave predominantly white rural voters greater voting weight than urban, mostly black, voters. The landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Justice in 1963 that the rule was unconstitutional was a setback for racial segregation and affirmed the principle of equal voting .

Life

Abram graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia in 1938 and was selected as a Rhodes Fellow , but his plans to attend Oxford University were temporarily halted by Britain's entry into World War II. Instead, he enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School , which he graduated in 1940. After serving in the army, Abram attended Oxford and earned a bachelor's (1948) and master's degree (1953).

In 1949 Abram began his struggle against the Georgian electoral code and fell victim to it when he tried to be nominated as a Democrat for Congress in 1953 in the Fifth Constituency . He campaigned for desegregation in schools and was behind the populous Fulton County , which also includes Atlanta . However, he lost two smaller counties, which had a disproportionately high voting weight, and lost the election.

In 1961, Abram was appointed Chief Counsel of the Peace Corps by US President John F. Kennedy and he served on various commissions and boards under four other presidents. He was national president of the American Jewish Committee (1963-68), chairman of the United Negro College Fund (1970-79), chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (1983-88) and chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations ( 1986-88). Abram was a partner in the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1963 to 1983 , with the exception of 1968 to 1970, when he served as President of Brandeis University in Waltham , Massachusetts , where he served as Founding President Abram L. Sachar followed. In 1993 he became an advisor to this law firm and, together with Edgar Miles Bronfman, founded the organization UN Watch , which he chaired until his death.

literature

• Morris B. Abram: The Day Is Short , 1982 (autobiography)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Morris Berthold Abram. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved April 9, 2018 . 
2. ^ William Honan: Morris Abram Is Dead at 81; Rights Advocate Led Brandeis. In: New York Times . March 17, 2000, accessed April 9, 2018 .