Griffin Bell oral history interview, September 19, 1990

Item — othertype: Oral History

Identifier: BellG_19900919_P1990-04

Staff Only

Griffin Bell oral history interview

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Scope and Contents

Interviewed by Williams Bost and Cliff Kuhn. Among topics discussed: Vandiver's appointees; war experience; Atlanta law firms after WW II; Judge Hooper; rural roads controversy; desegregation issue in Atlanta; school closure issue; "Forward Atlanta"; Atlanta's highway system; starting idea of mass transit in Atlanta; how Bell became chief of staff to Vandiver; staff selection; opposition to Bell; Brown v. Board of Education; C. Vann Woodward's testimony; free textbooks; single school plan (desegregation); Sibley Commission; Bell's confirmation hearings; appointment of Judge Robert Elliott; voting rights violations in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Voting Rights Act; Bell's judicial philosophy; Bell as chairman of the Atlanta Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency; Federal Judicial Center; Neighborhood Justice Center; work on Criminal Code; parole system; Federal Justice I; jury system; diversity jurisdiction; addition of a court of appeals between the circuit courts and the US Supreme Court; pre‑trial discovery abuses; summary procedure; Judge John R. Brown; Judge Elbert Tuttle.

Dates

Creation: September 19, 1990

Creator

Bell, Griffin B., 1918-2009 (Interviewee, Person)

Restrictions on Access

Oral history available for research.

Biographical Note

Griffin Bell (1918-2009) served as Chief of Staff under Governor Ernest Vandiver, was a judge on the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1961 to 1976, and was United States Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. After leaving Carter's cabinet, Bell served on numerous commissions as well as practicing law.