R. William Ide oral history interview, April 29, 2002

Interviewed by Cliff Kuhn. Among topics discussed: Attending Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia; Martin Luther King, Jr., not allowed to speak there; University of Virginia Law School; Griffin Bell and Taliaferro County case; desegregation; Taliaferro County in receivership; NAACP; Washington, D.C., Kennedy and Johnson eras; Rome, Georgia, attorney Bob Brenson and Diola Peek case; King and Spalding law firm; realization of unfairness toward the poor; tenants and Atlanta Housing Authority; missionaries from Yale University and Northeast; Ide's mother and Sarah Lawrence College, disadvantaged children; growing up in segregated Pickens, South Carolina; Brenson, Frank Johnson, Elbert Tuttle, John Minor Wisdom, workers with Georgia Legal Services; Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Nancy Cheves; Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO); Michael Padnos; Betty Kehrer; Fred LeClair, Emory University, and Georgia county economic study; Georgia Younger Lawyers Section and legal aid; Jim Elliott; Phil Heiner; Betsy Neely and Reginald Heaver Smith Program ("Reggie"), Virginia Law School; explanation of "Reggie"; Ben Shapiro; funds from Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); Jim Parham; DFACS; Herschel Saucier; beginning of legal aid approved by Bar at St. Simons meeting; Stell Huie; Georgia Indigent Legal Services Program; common attacks against legal aid; Emory University and legal aid; Ben Johnson; Dean Johnson; Maynard Jackson; Bucky Askew; Dan Bradley; American Bar Association (ABA); Justice Lewis Powell; John Cromartie; importance of State Bar's involvement; H. Sol Clark, Mr. Legal Aid in Georgia; opposition from older, conservative lawyers; Dan Bradley and OEO; formation of Georgia Legal Services outside the Bar; Cubbege Snow, Jr., of Macon; Gus Cleveland; Atlanta Saturday Lawyers; arguments made against legal aid; John Hopkins of King and Spalding; Edgar and Jean Kahn; National Legal Aid and Defenders Association (NLADA); Sargent "Sarge" Shriver; Earl Johnson; Al Kehrer, husband of Betty Kehrer, union organizing; Democratic Party; Steve Gottlieb and Brunswick; Savannah; Joe Bergen; Sonny Seiler; New Orleans. Gov. Lester Maddox acceptance of federal funds for Legal Aid; Maddox considered a populist; Gov. George Wallace of Alabama; Richard Nixon and China; memories of Phil Heiner; core group (Ide, Kehrer, Neely, Parham, Ben Johnson, et al.) meeting at Tasty Town; Ben Shapiro; Austin Ford and Ben Brown, first board of directors; War on Poverty; legal aid as a spinoff of the War on Poverty and Civil Rights; Ide traveling to other states to help with formation of legal aid; Bill Tharpe of North Carolina; Spencer Gilbert of Mississippi; Georgia as a model; fading out of Georgia Indigent Legal Services; Pierre Howard and the budget funding; Mary Margaret Oliver of Gainesville; Nancy Cheves of Columbus; Evans Plowden of Albany; Tom Dennard of Brunswick; decision to go out in the state; Frank Myers of Americus; Milton Carlton of Swainsboro; Albert Fendig of Brunswick; Georgia Criminal Justice Council; funding changes during the Nixon era; Jeff Donfeld; Bud Crowe; Howard Phillips of California; Lewis Powell; threats to Legal Aid: Reagan administration, Murphy Amendment, Edith Green Amendment; limitations to funding; California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA); function of lawyers under the English system before Revolution; Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, president of Florida State University and former ABA president; John McKay and Republicans; Warren Rudman; Jack Adams, Cubbege Snow, and Gus Cleveland: Bar leaders; funding debates in state legislature; Pierre Howard; Norman Underwood; hiring Betty Kehrer; Savannah Bar Association opposition to legal aid. Joe Bergen's lawsuit against Steve Gottlieb; Sonny Seiler; Aaron Buchsbaum; suit thrown out; Judge Land; Ruth Combs; Martin "Marty" Layfield; Greg Dellaire of Seattle; Denny Ray; trouble non-southern lawyers had relating to southern culture; Taliaferro County, Judge Bell, receivership; Ide's legal services in Africa and Eastern Europe; comparison with American law system; references to the West Bank and Bosnia; Sonny Seiler in Sea Island, Georgia, 1970s; sheriff of Dawson County, Georgia, and election; Bob Hall and Supreme Court of Georgia; Seiler's law firm burned; threats against Frank Johnson; Brenson and Peek case; shifts in legal system; Austin Ford; Revius Ortique of New Orleans; Dorothy Bolden; issues with Latino community; Fulton County and Latinos; Ide's reflections on legal service career; Phyllis Holmen; Bucky Askew; changes in post World War II America, Eisenhower administration; liberation movements; Brown v. Board of Education; Fourteenth Amendment, legal services' relationship to the U.S. Constitution; responsiveness of State Bar's leadership; Andrew Young and "Save Georgia Indigent Legal Services"; Taliaferro County; trial in Augusta, Georgia; Judge Morgan; Judge Bell; Judge Frank Scarlett and attitude toward Plessy v. Ferguson; Howard Moore; Don Hollowell; Charlie Bloch; discussion on school system; administration of Gov. S. Ernest Vandiver; Discussion on Judge Bell; Sibley Commission; cooperation within legal services.