Before there was a “Notorious RBG,” there was an “Audacious Bessie M.” From the New Orleans’s Jewish orphanage in which Bessie Margolin was raised to the United States Supreme Court, Fair Labor Lawyer traces the inspiring journey of the unsung Jewish legal trailblazer who worked tirelessly to protect American workers and their rights. Over the course of her career, Bessie Margolin defended the New Deal’s Tennessee Valley Authority, drafted the rules for American Military Tribunals for Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg, and became the nation’s first enforcer of the Equal Pay Act and a founder of NOW. Lacking female role models, Margolin used her brains, beauty and Southern charm to overcome antisemitism and sexism, winning respect in a man’s world of law. Fair Labor Lawyer also reveals facets of Margolin’s carefully guarded private life, including her risky clandestine romances with high-profile government officials who won her heart — but never her hand in marriage.
Nonfiction
Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of Bessie Margolin
- From the Publisher
February 10, 2016
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