Forgotten man in a Tumultuous Time: The Gilded Age as Seen by United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown
By Trevor Broad
Introduction
United States Supreme Court Justice Henry Billings Brown has been ignored and forgotten. It is ironic that Brown, the author of one of the Court's most notorious opinions remains one of the most obscure Justices in Supreme Court history. Consequently, little research has been done on his jurisprudence, and references to him are rare. Even a library holding his personal papers has overlooked his Supreme Court tenure. 1 One of the few scholars who has spent time analyzing Justice Brown's career, writes, "Henry Billings Brown ranks as one of the most forgotten men who ever sat on the United States Supreme Court." 2 To the extent Brown is remembered, it is for his opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson , which upheld a Louisiana Statute mandating separate railroad cars for blacks and whites. 3 The decision is often credited for legalizing the doctrine of "separate but equal." Until recently, the lack of attention to Justice Brown was in part due to a lack of research on the Fuller Court , as few legal scholars wanted to address what was perceived to be a mediocre Court. 4 However, in the late 1980s, the legacy of the Fuller Court began to be reevaluated. The recent scholarship on the Fuller Court has sought to explain the rationale behind the Court's decisions. 5 Yet, despite the improved understanding of that Court, little light has been shed on Justice Brown's career. In fact, Owen Fiss, the author of the Fuller Court volume of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, states in private correspondence, " I am embarrassed to say that my knowledge of Brown is rather limited." 6 Much of the scholarship on the Fuller Court has endeavored to refute the notion that the Court was "the willing instrument of corporate wealth." 7 Consequently, scholars have

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