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| Almost all the students were intellectually capable of learning enough to get a COn the other hand, I thought a good grade should mean somethingIn my big classes, ranging from fifty to ninety students, I gave two or three As and about the same number of DsIn one class of seventy-seven, I gave only one A, and only once did I flunk a studentUsually the students who were going to flunk would withdraw rather than risk an FIn two smaller classes, I gave more As because the students worked harder, learned more, and deserved them
Although the University of Arkansas law schools first black students had entered twenty-five years earlier, it was not until the early seventies that a substantial number of them finally began to enter state law schools across the SouthMany were not well prepared, especially those whose education had been confined to poor segregated schoolsAbout twenty black students took my courses between 1973 and 1976, and I got to know the othersAlmost all of them were working very hardThey wanted to succeed, and several of them lived under enormous emotional pressure because they were afraid cartier santos watches they couldnt make itSometimes their fears were justifiedIll never forget reading one black students exam paper with a mixture of disbelief and angerI knew he had studied like a demon and understood the material, but his exam didnt show itThe right answers were in there, but finding them required digging through piles of misspelled words, bad grammar, and poor sentence constructionAn As worth of knowledge was hidden in the bushes of an F presenta-tion, flawed by things he hadnt learned going all the way back to elementary schoolI gave him a B-, corrected the grammar and spelling, and decided to set up tutoring sessions to help transform the black students hard work and native intelligence into better resultsI think they helped, both substantively and psychologically, though several of the students continued to struggle with their writing skills and with the emotional burden of having one foot through the door of opportunity and the other held back by the heavy weight of past segregationWhen many of those students went on to distinguished careers as lawyers and judges, the clients they represented and watch ballon de cartier the parties they judged probably had no idea how high a mountain they had had to climb to reach the bar or the benchWhen the Supreme Court upheld the principle of affirmative action in 2003, I thought of my black students, of how hard they worked and all they had to overcomeThey gave me all the evidence Id ever need to support the Courts ruling
Besides my interaction with the students, the best thing about being a law professor was being part of a faculty filled with people I liked and admiredMy best friends on the faculty were two people my age, Elizabeth Osenbaugh and Dick AtkinsonElizabeth was a brilliant Iowa farm girl, a good Democrat, and a devoted teacher who became good friends with Hillary, tooEventually, she went back to Iowa to work in the Attorney Generals officeWhen I was elected President, I persuaded her to come to the Justice Department, but after a few years she again went back home, largely because she thought it would be better for her young daughter, BetsySadly, Elizabeth died of cancer in 1998, and her daughter went to live with Elizabeths brotherI have tried to keep in touch with replica rolex submariner Betsy over the years; her mother was one of the finest people Ive ever knownDick Atkinson was a friend from law school who had grown dissatisfied with private practice in AtlantaI suggested he consider teaching and urged him to come to Fayetteville for an interviewHe did, and was offered and accepted a position on our facultyThe students loved Dick, and he loved teachingIn 2003, he would become Dean of the Arkansas Law SchoolOur most famous and fascinating professor was Robert Leflar, the most eminent legal scholar our state ever produced, a recognized authority in torts, conflicts of law, and appellate judgingIn 1973, he was already past the mandatory retirement age of seventy and was teaching a full load for a dollar a yearHe had been on the faculty since he was twenty-sixFor several years before I knew him, Bob had commuted weekly between Fayetteville and New York, where he taught a course in appellate judging to federal and state judges at New York University Law School, a course that more than half the Supreme Court justices had takenHe was never late for class in either place
Bob Leflar was a fendi spy small, wiry man with huge, piercing eyes, and he was still as strong as an oxHe couldnt have weighed more than 150 pounds, but while working in his yard he carried around big chunks of flagstone that I could hardly liftAfter every Razorback football homecoming game, Bob and his wife, Helen, hosted a party in their homeSometimes guests would play touch football in the front yardI remember one game in particular, when Bob and I and another young lawyer played against two big young guys and a nine-year-old boyThe game was tied and we all agreed that whoever scored next would winOur side had the ballI asked Bob if he really wanted to winHe was as competitive as Michael JordanSo I told the third man on our team to center the ball, let the rusher come after me, and go block the tall man defending the backfield to the rightThe nine-year-old was covering Bob, on the assumption that Id throw the ball to the taller, younger man, or that if Bob got the ball the kid would be able to touch himI told Bob to block the kid to the right too, then run hard left, and Id throw the ball to him right before the rusher got to fake louis vuitton bags monogram manhattan |
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