LEGALLY DEFENDING THE GOOD NEWS

In October 1939, while pioneering in Andalusia, Alabama, I received a telegram from the Society that said in substance: “Proceed to Alexandria, Louisiana, at once. Four pioneers in jail. Local brothers unable to secure their release. Do what you can for these brothers.”

I immediately left Andalusia by auto. Other Witnesses had gone to about every lawyer in Alexandria, but not one would touch the case. One of Louisiana’s leading lawyers declined. Asked if he would defend these men if they were charged with rape, murder or robbery, he said that he would. But he would not take a case for defending Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.

Not yet having been admitted to practice law in the state of Louisiana, I was not able to do as much as I wanted to do. My first thought was to get bond and get the Witnesses released. So I went to City Judge Gus A. Voltz, who reached for his pistol and ordered me out of his office, as I have already mentioned. I then went to the district attorney, who expressed regret that the Witnesses were in jail but said there was nothing he could do. The “heat is on” against the Witnesses, he explained, so if I valued my reputation as a lawyer (he did not ask me if I was a lawyer), I would get out of town. But I stayed, for my Christian brothers had been in jail for several weeks now, and it was Jehovah’s name and reputation that were involved.

I phoned a lawyer in New Orleans, Herman L. Midlo, who came to Alexandria, and after appropriate proceedings the four Witnesses were released. Mr. Midlo and I then went to a restaurant for lunch. When we came out, police were waiting. They arrested Mr. Midlo and took him to jail. I reported it to the district attorney, who called the city judge and told him that he had better let the lawyer out of jail. Mr. Midlo was then released.

By early 1942 I had gained admission to the bar of the state of Louisiana. Then I was in a better position to render legal assistance to my Christian brothers.

The arrests for preaching Bible truth in Alexandria continued. Each time I would go there and appear in court, this judge repeated his threat to kill me. But I was not to be intimidated. Since widespread publicity was given the arrests, the courtroom was jam-packed each time. Alexandria had a large military establishment during the war, and on one occasion I discerned a number of servicemen wearing decorations in attendance for the trial. So when I came to argue the case, I said:

“I note that in court today there are some young men who have been fighting in the war. What have they been fighting for? They and we have been told that they are fighting for the freedoms all Americans so much cherish: Speech, press and worship, and the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of one’s conscience being the most precious of all these freedoms. And here we see the City of Alexandria depriving American citizens of these very things.”

The judge was ‘boiling over’ with rage, but the servicemen and others appeared highly pleased.

The Witnesses continued to come under ill-treatment at the hands of this judge down to about 1953. Then we had our last case. Again the judge found the Witnesses guilty. An appeal was taken. One of the Witnesses, Marion Goudeau, who knew the judge, went to his office to sign the appeal bond. It was then that the judge confided to him:

“Mr. Goudeau, for thirteen years I have fought Jehovah’s witnesses, warning them, threatening them and jailing them, to no avail. They just keep coming back to Alexandria. I cannot stand another case with them. I can’t take it anymore.”

This judge did not have to ‘stand them’ or “take it anymore” because he died not long thereafter.

Since 1953 the Witnesses have had little or no trouble in preaching the good news in Alexandria. One of the greatest thrills of my ministerial career came in the summer of 1970, as I sat with a crowd of more than 9,000 people in the Rapides Coliseum in Alexandria during the district assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses, taking in Bible instruction.

In Oakdale, Louisiana, one Sunday, nine Witnesses were arrested and jailed. They phoned me and I was there Monday morning. I first went to the jail. The jailhouse door had been left open, with the hope, I later learned, that the prisoners would walk out; then the city could charge them with jailbreaking. But the Witnesses remained.

At the trial the prosecution summoned an elderly lady to testify against the Witnesses. She had obtained a book from a Witness who called at her home. The police confiscated it. When she took the witness stand in court, the prosecutor showed her the book and asked where she got it. She said she got it from a Witness.

“How much did you pay for the book?” roared the prosecutor.

“Not a penny,” she replied. “You see, I told them I was too poor to contribute for the book, but I did want it, so they gave it to me.”

What a dumbstruck city attorney and judge! Yet, despite a total absence of any evidence that the Witnesses were selling, the city judge sentenced them to thirty days in jail. An appeal was taken and the convictions were dismissed.

In time, I began to cross over into Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Texas to defend Jehovah’s witnesses in court. Eventually I became involved in court trials of Witnesses, either directly and/​or as counsel, in almost every state of the union.

For example, at the request of G. C. Clark, a Mississippi lawyer and one of Jehovah’s witnesses, I stepped over to assist him. Some of our Christian sisters in the full-time preaching work were arrested in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and were treated very shamefully. The prejudice was so great that Clark was convinced we could never get a fair trial, so we would “object” the case out of court. Every time the prosecutor opened his mouth, Clark objected. When he tired of objecting, he told me to take over. So I did. Between us, we must have registered no less than fifty objections. The prosecutor complained to the judge that he could not try the case because of our objections. The judge reminded him that we had a right to object, whether our objection was good or bad. Finally, in utter disgust, the prosecutor said: “When the district attorney can’t try his case, it’s time to quit. I’m getting out of this crazy place!” And that he did. The judge then dismissed the charges.

After Brother Clark’s death, I traveled all over Mississippi representing my Christian brothers. In every case, I tried, not only to defend the right of the Witnesses to preach, but, whenever possible, to give an effective witness respecting God’s kingdom.

An unusual case was entrusted to me in 1963. For two years the children of Jehovah’s witnesses had had to stay out of the public schools of Pinetop, Arizona, as well as other places in that state, because of their conscientious refusal to render homage to the state as required by Arizona law during the singing of the national anthem. Efforts to get the children reinstated were to no avail. The case was assigned for trial in July 1963, in Federal District Court at Phoenix. The courtroom was packed. After all the evidence was in, I opened my argument with these words:

“If Francis Scott Key (who wrote the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner) were here today, he would blush with shame, to see that emblem, the American flag, which he viewed as a symbol of liberty and about which he wrote in The Star-Spangled Banner, now used as a club to beat little children down and force them to violate their deepest Christian convictions.”

In time the court handed down its decree holding that such expulsion of children from the public schools was illegal and unconstitutional and that the children should be reinstated.