The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero

They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911). The circumstance of his upbringing in Kentucky, alongside an enslaved man his father raised as his own son, and his persistent vision of American equality propelled Harlan to be one of our nation’s greatest defender of civil rights. His dissents were widely read and a source of hope for decades. Thurgood Marshall regarded Harlan’s 1896 dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson as his “Bible” and legal roadmap to overturning segregation. As a celebration of our country—home of the free, home of the brave—don’t miss learning about Harlan’s life and times, and his work that began the legal revolutions of the New Deal and Civil Rights era.