Nathan Ross Margold (1899 - December 17, 1947) was a Romanian-born American lawyer. He was a municipal judge in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and the author of the 1933
Margold Report
Nathan Ross Margold (1899 - December 17, 1947) was a Romanian-born American lawyer. He was a municipal judge in Washington, D.C., and the author of the 1933 Margold Report to promote civil rights for African-Americans through the courts. He was a ...
to promote civil rights for African-Americans through the courts. He was also a supporter of
Native American civil rights
Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States. Native Americans are citizens of their respective Native nations as well as the United States, and those nations are characterized under United State ...
. In addition to his legal career, Margold is remembered as the father of adult film pioneer
William Margold
William Margold (October 2, 1943 – January 17, 2017) was an American pornographic film actor and porn film director.
Known as Bill Margold, he was a former director of the Free Speech Coalition and was a co-founder of X-Rated Critics Organiza ...
.
Early life
Nathan Ross Margold was born in
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
in 1899, to Wolf Margulies and Rosa Kahan. He was brought to the United States at age two. Growing up in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, he graduated from
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
in 1919.
Margold then attended
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
.
He became the editor of the school's Law Review.
He was a "protégé" of
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judicia ...
,
who interested him in working for social reforms and workers rights.
[ Latter, during the New Deal era, former students of Frankfurter who joined the U.S. Federal government (including Margold) were collectively referred to as "Happy Hotdogs" invoking a pun on their mentor's name.][
]
Career
After earning his law degree, Margold returned to New York City in 1923 and set up a private practice.[ From 1925 through 1927 Margold served as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.][ In 1927 Margold married Gertrude Weiner (the couple would go on to have a son).][
Also in 1927, Felix Frankfurter persuaded Margold to return to his alma mater, the Harvard Law School, and teach Criminal Law.][ Harvard president A. Laurence Lowell opposed Margold, as he did not want another Jewish reformer on the faculty. Lowell's opposition was countered by law school dean Roscoe Pound who was a supporter of Frankfurter. Pound was forced to back down to Lowell after almost two years of pressure, and Margold lost his job.][ Margold returned to his private practice in New York City in 1928.][
From 1928 through 1929 Margold served as a special counsel for the New York Transit Commission.][ In 1930 he served as a legal adviser on Indian affairs for the Institute for Government Research.][ During this time Margold also wrote many articles for law journals and coedited ''Cases on Criminal Law''.][
Due to Frankfurter's recommendation, the ]National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP) recruited Margold as a special counsel beginning from 1930 through 1933.[ In 1931, Margold wrote a book-length strategy (often referred to as the Margold Report), presenting an outline to desegregate public schools in the south. The NAACP adapted many of its ideas to advance civil rights for African-Americans through the courts, culminating in 1954's '']Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
''.[
Margold received recommendations from Frankfurter and Justice ]Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
Starting in 1890, he helped develop the "right to privacy" concept ...
and was hired as the solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
. He served in this department from 1933 to 1942, including acting as an aide to Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes ( ; March 15, 1874 – February 3, 1952) was an American administrator, politician and lawyer. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for nearly 13 years from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold th ...
.[ Ickes named him as chairman of the Petroleum Administrative Board after the National Recovery Administration codified the industry.][ He was then appointed chairman of the Petroleum Labor Policy Board to administer that code, and served in that position from 1933 to 1935.][ The position was dissolved when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parts of the ''National Industrial Recovery Act'', which had delegated petroleum code-making authority to the Executive branch, were unconstitutional in '' Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan''.][ From 1933 to 1935 Margold also acted as a special assistant attorney general.]
In 1940, Margold wrote the introduction to the ''Handbook of Federal Indian Law'' by Felix S. Cohen. Margold believed that Indian self-governance was "a revealing record in the development of our American constitutional democracy."
Margold was a member of the Modern Forum of the League for Peace and Democracy, an organization named as a "Communist front organization" by witnesses during a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
in 1938.
Recognizing his loyalty and legal expertise, Franklin Delano Roosevelt named Margold as a judge on the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia in 1942 where he continued to serve until 1945.[ He was then moved to the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia and served there until his death in 1947.][
]
Death
Margold died on December 17, 1947, in Washington, D.C.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margold, Nathan Ross
1899 births
1947 deaths
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Romanian emigrants to the United States
City College of New York alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Municipal judges in the United States
20th-century American judges
District of Columbia judges
Jewish American attorneys
Activists for African-American civil rights
Native Americans' rights activists
20th-century American Jews