Hulett H. "Bucky" Askew oral history interview, July 22, 2002

Among topics discussed: Trajectory that led Askew into Legal Services; native Atlanta; undergraduate education at University of North Carolina in 1960; then attended Emory University Law School in 1964; role of Emory Dean Ben Johnson; attempts to integrate Emory University; Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Nancy Cheves; pro bono requirements at Emory; work for law firm in Atlanta; Askew and roommate's clerkship with Griffin Bell; Tom Bryant, Director of OEO Health Affairs Division, and relief for the poor; Askew's work with Health Affairs; election of Richard Nixon; Terry Lindsner as OEO Legal Services director; Donald Rumsfeld appointed OEO director by Nixon and Dick Cheney as special assistant; Nixon's instructions to shut Legal Aid down; Mickey Cantor; role of Dan Bradley, regional director for OEO Legal Services in South; Bill Ide; Bradley and Ide's attempt to start Legal Aid in Georgia; Askew's interview at Capitol Hill with Fletcher Thompson's administrative assistant; Askew's move back to Atlanta to work with OEO in 1971-1975; Lindsner and Bradley fired; Bradley transferred to San Francisco, Askew appointed Regional Director of OEO Legal Services in Atlanta, 1975-1978; Askew as Deputy Director of Field Division of Legal Services Corporation (LSC), 1978-1982; Donald Bogard hired as LSC president; Askew as Civil Director of National Legal Aid and Defenders Association (NLADA); appointed to Board of Directors of LSC by Bill Clinton in 1994; black law students at Emory, Marvin Arrington and Clarence Cooper; Askew's classmates: Betsey Neely, Bill Brennan, and Tillie Kidd Fowler; Emory Community Law Center and Atlanta Legal Aid Society; Michael Padnos; Maynard Jackson; Lucy McGough; Colquitt Meacham; role of McGough; Bradley early life: youth in Georgia Baptist Children's Home in Hapeville, Mercer University Law School student; Bradley's relationship with Joe Hendricks; role of Bradley in integration of Mercer University; Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship awarded to Bradley; studied at University of Pennsylvania and placed in South Florida Migrant Legal Services with Mickey Cantor; Tom Ehrlich; Ronald Reagan's anti-Legal Service attitude; Bradley's death from AIDS in 1988; Bradley's interaction with North Carolina governor Robert Walter Scott; early funding for Georgia Indigent Legal Services (GILS) and Bradley; Phil Heiner, Ben Shapiro, Bill Ide, and GILS's creation in 1970; Saturday Lawyers Program; OEO in Savannah, Macon, and Columbus; study of Young Lawyers Section showing need for Legal Aid; operation of GILS through the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); Lester Maddox and the granting of funds to GILS; State Bar of Georgia and control of GILS; Gus Cleveland; Alf Corbett and OEO Legal Services in Washington, D.C.; Jimmy Carter; creation of Georgia Legal Services; Georgia Legal Services funding and growth; funding from OEO; Younger Lawyers; first director of GILS, Betty Kehrer; leadership abilities of Kehrer; second GILS director Greg Dellaire from Seattle Legal Services Program; Dellaire's management skills and national reputation, aggressive vision for GILS; lawsuit against Steve Gottlieb by Joe Bergen of Savannah; Askew's involvement in Savannah lawsuit. Implications for Legal Services of Savannah lawsuit; role of Bradley and Dellaire in suit; transfer of GILS from OEO; appointment of Howard Phillips by Nixon as Director of OEO; Phillips as critic of Legal Services; termination of OEO staff; Phillips removed from office by federal court; Al Arnett; Ash Commission and creation of LSC; vetoes by Nixon; restrictions placed on LSC; Leonard Garment; Nixon's resignation; appointment of first LSC board by Gerald Ford; LSC transition team, Lou Oberdorfer and David Tatel; Askew's role in transfer; crisis in Georgia Legal Services over funding by Georgia General Assembly; changes in Askew's responsibilities in Georgia Legal Services; OEO funding in the South; Legal Aid in Mississippi; Askew's staff: Michael Terry, Clint Lyons, Betsey Neely, Guy Lescault; Legal Services Corporation of Alabama; Glen Stoffel of Chattanooga; creation of thirteen new Legal Service programs in the South; Georgia Legal Services' growth and national recognition; use of paralegals; VISTA program; opposition to Legal Services by state bars; Black English law suit; role of non-lawyers Aaron Henry and Harry Bowie in Mississippi, public responsibility; Martha Bergmark and public interest law firm in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; goal to have Legal Aid funded in every county in United States; Golden Years of late 1970s; Jim Parham and Herschel Saucier, support for Legal Services; Parham's move to Washington with Carter administration; organization of Clients Council; origins notions of role of government in Legal Services; NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a model for Legal Services; development of theories of Daniel Patrick Moynihan; OEO Act; CAP agencies and Bill Allison; Michael Padnos; issue over core values; promises to poor; Donald Hollowell; Voting Rights Project; Jean and Edgar Cahn; Fred Gray's appointment to the State Bar of Alabama; Gray's book Bus Ride to Justice; Morris Dees against Gray; crossover from Carter to Reagan administration; Ed Meese; Reagan's problems with California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA); goal of Meese to destroy CRLA; Frank Carlucci; board of LSC chaired by Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York Times and Howell Raines; Human Rights Campaign; Jerry Kaplan; Warren B. Rudman; George Bush; University of Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas Legal Services; Yale University Law School; Bill McAlpine; George W. Bush; Alberto Gonzalez; Supreme Court of Texas; Republican revolution; Newt Gingrich; Reagan administration.