Morris Abram oral history interview, January 4, 1978

Interviewed by Lorraine Spritzer. Among topics discussed: First meeting of Abram and Helen Mankin; education; South v. Peters; Turman v. Duckworth; Democratic Party's use of the courts; Jim Peters; Judge Sibley; Judge Neal Andrews; Richard B. Russell's opinion of Andrews; Russell and Harry Truman; the erosion of the county unit system; Hamilton Douglas and his relationship with Helen Mankin; South v. Peters in the Supreme Court; Joe Riles (UAW lawyer); Illinois senator Paul Douglas; Mankin in 1948; Everett Millican; Mankin's opinion of Duckworth; Mankin's use of foul language; Guy Mankin; Mankin's anonymity as sponsor of South v. Peters; qualifications of Bernard South; Southern Regional Council; William Hartsfield; Sanders v. Gray; Robert Woodruff and Hartsfield; filing suit over county unit system; political use of the courts during county unit cases; Charles Reed; Charles Weltner; county unit case in Savannah; Alex Lawrence; Judge Frank Scarlett; Baker v. Carr; the judicial system in Georgia; Boyd Sloan; Frank Hooper; "mandamussing"; Buck Murphy; Helen Mankin as an attorney and an activist; Ruth Ann Abram; Abram's family; Ralph Spritzer; Abram's fight against county unit system; Brown v. Board of Education; James Davis' personality; Mary Martin; financial backing of South v. Peters; Mankin in 1948; Atlanta's views of Mankin; Mankin in Washington D.C. (1950); Josephine Wilkins; Hattie Carroll; Baker v. Carr's merits as a test case against county unit system; Herman Talmadge's attempts to strengthen county unit system in 1948 and 1950; "One man one vote" as a slogan; Robert Kennedy; the weight of votes; Archibald Cox; Jimmy Carter; Koinonia Farms; Carter's 1966 gubernatorial campaign; Carter's image in 1978.