William Francis (Frank) Murphy, April 13, 1890 - July 19, 1949

The Honorable Justice Frank Murphy

Born in Harbor Beach, Michigan, he received his law degree from the University of Michigan. Among many other things, he served in WWI, had a private law practice, became Mayor of Detroit and later, Governor of Michigan.

He served as Governor General of the Philippines and then became the U.S. Attorney General and established the first civil rights unit in the Justice Department.

From 1940 until his death in 1949, Murphy was a Supreme Court justice, appointed by president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that authorized the relocation of Japanese people to detention camps. Fred Korematsu refused to comply and was arrested and jailed. He sued claiming the Executive Order was unconstitutional but lost in Federal Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the original verdict. 

In 1944, the case of Korematsu v. the United States came before the Supreme Court and the court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld the constitutionality of the government's internment of Japanese-Americans. Murphy's dissent is famous among legal scholars and a plaque stands in front of his old home in Harbor Beach (his home is now a museum).

On a random trip through Harbor Beach a few years ago, we came across the museum, which was not open at the time.

The first time the word 'racism' appeared in a Supreme Court opinion was in Murphy's dissent when he called the government's internment of Japanese Americans the legalization of racism.

Also in 1944, Murphy chaired the National Committee against Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews (this came about years too late but it happened, nonetheless, thanks to Frank Murphy).

This was a man on the right side of history.

June 2022 Update:

We were back in Harbor Beach in June of 2022 and this time the museum was open as was the home of his birth, both of which comprise the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum.

This house was built in the 1870s and one wing of it was used as a law office by Frank's father. Frank was born here in 1890 and the family later moved into the larger home next door (the other part of the museum).

Our tour then moved into the larger home.

Murphy with FDR.

Our tour guide was wonderful and agreed to give us the 30 minute version instead of the 2 hour tour. Lastly, we went to pay our final respects to Justice Frank Murphy.

"I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States...". 

Justice Frank Murphy 

Thoughts on the Fourth of July ~ July 4, 2015

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Most people know that we celebrate the independence of the United States on this day. Some don't know from whom we became liberated and most cannot tell you what actually happened on July 4, 1776. So here's a rundown for you so you can win your next trivia contest.

April 19, 1775 - American Revolution technically began with the shot heard round the world. Lexington and Concord still quibble about who fired/suffered the first shot.

June 11, 1776 - Continental Congress appointed a committee of five (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman) to draft a declaration of independence. Jefferson takes on the initial draft which is modified by committee members.

June 28, 1776 - The Declaration is presented to the Continental Congress and further modifications are made, including this provision which was completely omitted (whether it was omitted in committee or in congress is unclear):
He (King George III) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

Jefferson owned slaves but still took King George III to task for fostering the slave trade. The Southern delegates would have no part of it, however, and the clause disappeared.

July 2, 1776 - Congress declared the United Colonies to be independent of Great Britain.
Continental Congress resolves these United Colonies are & of right ought to be Free & Independent States. John Adams thought this would be the day that went down in history to be forever celebrated but, alas, that fell to July 4.

July 4, 1776 - Congress approved and ratified the final wording of the Declaration and that was the date printed on the Declaration. 

August 2, 1776 - Most of the delegates signed the declaration but it would be months before all 56 signatures were affixed. And one delegate would never sign. Robert Livingston, who was on the original committee of five to draft the document, didn't think it was the right time to declare independence or was recalled by his state, depending on who you read.

November, 1776 - A copy of the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain

There is a rough timeline but what about the contents of the declaration itself? The second paragraph contains what are among the most well-known words in American history:  We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The document then goes on to list 27 accusations against King George III which are intended to further justify this radical move by the Colonies. Let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

Here is a very brief background of two of the complaints, the 7th and the 27th. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the French Indian War and part of the terms included King George drawing a line along the Appalachian mountain ridge and declaring that everything west of that belonged to the Indians. Only he could make treaties with them and all further migration was forbidden. This was anathema to the colonists who considered all land theirs for the conquest.
Complaint 7 - He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

And here is Complaint 27. He (King George III) has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions. 

You know the subsequent history for Native Americans who dared to inhabit "our Frontiers." Genocide, relocations, broken treaties, massacres, and boarding schools for Native American children that continued right up into the 1970s, all done to the "merciless Indian Savages". Slavery, persecution, murder, and racial prejudice continued on for African Americans and today we still need to remind everyone that black lives matter. Women continue to strive for equal pay and our LGBT population is still fighting for equal human rights.

"All men" were created equal, but that was a small and privileged group back in 1776. Let's temper our independence celebrations with an honest and realistic look at our history.

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Presidential trivia for July 4. Three presidents died on that day and one was born. Two of the deaths took place on the same day, five hours apart. See the links for info.

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson

James Monroe

Calvin Coolidge