Lawrence Graham Brooks was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in February 1881, married Susan M. Hallowell in 1912, and spent the next seventy years as a husband, father, civil rights champion, judge and quintessential New Englander.
He donated his papers to the Harvard Law School in 1980 and published these memoirs the following year with the assistance of editor Lawrence A. Carter. He passed away the same year, leaving both a human and humorous chronicle of his 100 years of life.
Early Life, Family and Education
Although the memoirs are not laid out in strict chronological order, each segment of Brooks’ life is compiled to describe a significant area of his life. His stories of traveling in Europe with his parents and two brothers in the 1890s, his recounting of daily life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his attendance at Harvard College (he graduated in 1905) and his family ties all blend into a smooth narrative that catches the essence of the new century.
The author’s hand also writes easily in his telling of childhood summers at Cape Cod and the White Mountains country of New Hampshire, both of which were near and dear to him and his family throughout his life.
Public Enterprises and Civil Rights
As a young Harvard lawyer setting up a practice in the Boston area, Lawrence Brooks took an interest in civil liberties on a number of levels. He declined membership in the American Bar Association because of its discriminatory nature, he was an advocate of requiring blood-alcohol tests for drunken drivers, he ran into conflicts with Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and he was “brought to the barricades at Selma”
Before becoming a judge for the District Courts in his beloved Middlesex County, Massachusetts, he had his own law firm for twenty-three years. He writes of these civil controversies from the perspective of one who has been empowered as a judge to help others as they struggle through everyday life. The result is an intriguing snapshot of American life all through the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Those who enjoy a first-person narrative will appreciate the Judge’s easy style of writing. Historians who seek a better sense of perspective on the legal and civic professionals of Boston during this time will be pleasantly rewarded. In rendering a final summary of his life, Judge Lawrence Graham Brooks offers a three-fold treat: family values, civic-mindedness and judicial wisdom rolled into 395 pages.
The Memoirs of Lawrence Graham Brooks, b. 1881, edited by Lawrence A. Carter. Nimrod Press, 1981
ISBN: out of print
Marie Brannon - Experienced writer Marie Brannon hails from Texas. She is a detail-oriented writer who approaches article research with meticulous care.
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