The case of Gideon v. Wainwright led to a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court that required states to provide legal counsel for indigent defendants regardless of the degree of crime they are accused of.
The Sixth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution provides individuals the right to legal counsel in the event that they are accused of a crime. Prior to 1963, however, this provision remained vague and did not provide for whom and to what extent this right was to be offered.
In June 1961, Clarence Gideon, an indigent electrician, was arrested and charged with breaking into a pool hall in Panama City, Florida. Although police accused Gideon of attempting to steal beer, Coke, and money from a cigarette machine, he declared his innocence. In August, as the case went to trial, Gideon informed the judge that he was not prepared for his trial because he had failed to obtain legal defense. Gideon then requested the court to provide him with counsel. The judge responded, “Mr. Gideon, I am sorry, but I cannot appoint counsel to represent you in this case. Under the laws of the State of Florida, the only time the Court can appoint Counsel to represent a defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense. I am sorry, but I will have to deny your request to appoint Counsel to defend you in this case.”
With the denial of counsel, the trial continued. Gideon, ill-prepared and unable to adequately represent himself in court, was convicted by the jury and sentenced to five years in prison. At the time of Gideon’s trial, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel was applicable only at the federal level and states had the discretion to determine the use of this amendment. Many, including Florida, elected not to apply the privilege of counsel to the impoverished at the state level.
In an attempt to appeal his sentence, Gideon filed a petition to invalidate his conviction on the grounds that the state of Florida’s refusal to provide him with counsel violated his constitutional rights. The Florida Supreme Court denied the petition. After this defeat, Gideon filed an appeal with the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1962, after his second appeal, the Supreme Court decided to hear Gideon’s case. In January 1963, Abe Fortas, Gideon’s court-appointed counsel, asserted that it was unconstitutional for states to create independent legislation determining the appointment of legal counsel to a defendant, and, by so doing, they violated Gideon’s Sixth Amendment rights. The Gideon team further argued that by allowing states to implement only certain elements of the Bill of Rights, the Fourteenth Amendment was also being violated. This amendment states that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” The court issued its decision in March 1963. The justices reversed Gideon’s conviction on the grounds that he was denied due process provided by the Sixth Amendment when Florida courts denied him legal counsel. Justice Hugo Black, delivering the court’s opinion stated, “The individual, and especially the indigent, is in greatest need of his constitutional rights when he finds himself in trouble with the law.” The decision of the U. S. Supreme Court led to a new trial for Gideon.
Represented by competent legal counsel, Gideon was acquitted. The decision in Gideon v. Wainwright provided for the protection of those accused of crimes, however minor or serious. The Court concluded that states were constitutionally required to provide legal counsel for criminal defendants too needy to afford their own attorney. The case also served to illustrate the power of the federal government over state government. Previously, states had the choice of implementing certain parts of the U. S. Bill of Rights. The Gideon case illustrated that the ultimate power to determine acceptable boundaries of civil liberties rested with the federal government.
Further reading: Maureen Harrison and Steve Gilbert, Landmark Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (New York: Excellent Books, 1991); Philip B. Kurland, The Supreme Court and the Judicial Function (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
—Erin Craig
Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) poet, Beat movement leader
As one of the most influential voices of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg’s poetry and writing questioned the very essence of American life.
Ginsberg grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Louis and Naomi Ginsberg. As a child, Allen was exposed to a variety of factors that had a profound effect upon his later life as well as his poetry. Louis, Allen’s father, was himself a published poet. Naomi Ginsberg, however, may have left a more powerful impression upon her son. Haunted by episodes of schizophrenia, Naomi found it difficult to fulfill her role as mother to Allen. It was also during this time that Allen recognized his budding homosexuality, which played a pivotal role in both his professional and his private lives.
In 1943, Ginsberg headed off to Columbia University in New York. Originally, he studied to be a labor lawyer, though he soon changed his major to literature. During this period he met future authors William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, who became prominent members of the Beat Generation. This talented group all shared a common
Poet Allen Ginsberg leads a group of demonstrators outside the Women's House of Detention on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich Village, demanding the release of prisoners arrested for use or possession of marijuana, 1965. (Library of Congress)
Realization, namely, that although America experienced a new era of profound opportunity following World War II, there was a dark side to this success. Ginsberg and his compatriots focused upon the controversial elements in American life, such as racial issues and an emerging new drug scene. This world fascinated these men, and along their journey of exploration they developed what they termed a “New Vision” for looking at life. Ginsberg and his peers believed that life could be understood only by expanding one’s own experiences, that truths could be found in different realities as well as in the lower levels of life. In addition to these thoughts, perhaps the most important aspect of this “New Vision” was the idea that all aspects of life should be explored as freely and openly as possible.
In the early 1950s, Ginsberg headed to San Francisco to join the burgeoning poetry movement. In 1955, he changed the face of poetry with the publication of Howl, a poem that gave voice to the outcasts of American society. Ginsberg accomplished this in the poem’s opening lines: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.” The poem challenged the status quo of America by addressing such taboo topics as homosexuality and recreational drug use. Howl, however, was not a hit with everyone. In fact, the publisher of the first few editions of Howl faced charges for knowingly selling obscenity. Fortunately, the judge took a different view and recognized Howl as a poem of social importance.
Following the success of Howl, Ginsberg continued to develop as a poet and writer. In another controversial poem entitled America (1956), he yet again challenged American social and political views. Ginsberg then went on to write Kaddish (1959), a stirring tribute to his mother. Filled with compassion, the poem integrated all of the best memories as well as the worst concerning his mother’s illness.
During the 1960s, Ginsberg remained active in the political and cultural movements of the time. He became involved with Timothy Leary, the leader of the psychedelic drug movement. Ginsberg believed that psychedelic drugs were a perfect way to empower individuals to search their own minds, especially the young. The friendship between Ginsberg and Leary lasted until Leary’s death 35 years later. In addition to his friendship with Leary, Ginsberg befriended the Beatles as well as Bob Dylan. The work of Ginsberg and those within the Beat Generation had a profound effect upon these artists’ works. Ginsberg was also present at the disastrous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Ginsberg, however, was outraged at the violent protests that erupted, and he instead supported nonviolent demonstrations.
Allen Ginsberg remained active in politics and culture for the rest of his life. On April 5, 1997, Allen Ginsberg succumbed to cancer of the liver at the age of 70.
Further reading: Graham Caveney, Screaming with Joy: The Life of Allen Ginsberg (New York: Broadway Books, 1999); Allen Ginsberg, Selected Poems: 1947-1995 (New York: HarperCollins, 1996); Michael Schumacher, Dharma Lion: A Critical Biography of Allen Ginsberg (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992).
—Clayton Douglas
Goldwater, Barry (1908-1998) U. S. senator, presidential candidate
Barry Goldwater, an Arizona senator and the 1964 Republican presidential candidate against incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, was one of the postwar architects of conservatism, a program stressing individual liberty and free enterprise rather than government welfare programs in the United States.
Goldwater was born on January 1, 1908, into a prominent Phoenix, Arizona, family that owned a chain of general stores throughout the state. A mediocre student at first, Goldwater enrolled at the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, where he graduated first in his class. He spent only one year at college, however, returning home to work in the family business when his father died in 1929. Gold-water was a successful manager, desegregating all the stores and establishing a five-day workweek. During World War II, Goldwater, a passionate aviator, flew supply planes from the United States to Asia. Upon returning home, he left the family business, choosing instead to run for the Phoenix city council in 1949. In 1952, unhappy with his country’s participation in the Korean War, he campaigned for the U. S. Senate as a Republican.
After narrowly defeating incumbent Ernest W. McFarland—a powerful Arizona politician and the Senate majority leader—Goldwater established himself as an influential spokesperson for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He criticized what he saw as an encroaching welfare state, opposed foreign arms sales, and attacked any rapprochement with communism in Europe and Asia. Goldwater believed that his party’s positions embodied too soft a response to the policies of former presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, calling President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s general acceptance of their welfare programs “a dime store New Deal.” His comments earned the senator the respect of conservative Republicans in the West and the resentment of liberal Republicans in the East.
An increasingly prominent conservative leader with a reputation for always speaking his mind, Goldwater became a popular speaker at Republican fundraisers and was easily reelected to the Senate in 1958. In 1960, he published The Conscience of a Conservative, which outlined Goldwater’s ideals: belief in the free enterprise system, a robust and well-maintained military, custom and tradition over what Goldwater called change for the sake of change, a limited government, the constitutional process, and the advancement of spirituality rather than material wealth. At the 1960 Republican convention, Goldwater received 10 votes on the first ballot for the presidential nomination, but withdrew himself from consideration in favor of Vice President Richard M. Nixon. In his speech at the convention, however, Goldwater urged his fellow conservatives to “take this party back.”
In 1962, Goldwater began the groundwork for a 1964 presidential campaign, eager to run against President John F. Kennedy; the president’s assassination in 1963, however, caused Goldwater to consider strongly dropping out of the race. His concern about continuing the eastern liberal wing’s dominance over his party led Gold-water to run, nonetheless, what he knew would be a difficult campaign. Goldwater’s casual statements about the use of nuclear weapons—he once joked about “lobbing one into the men’s room of the Kremlin”—elicited strong criticism from his own party. Critics attacked the senator as an extremist who would pull the country into a third world war, and while he helped end SEGREGATION in his own state, the senator’s vote against the CiViL RIGHTS AcT Of 1964 (on the grounds that it was unconstitutional) lost him any substantial support from the African-American community. Goldwater lost the New Hampshire primary to write-in candidate Henry Cabot Lodge, but he upset his main competition, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, in the California primary. Goldwater went to the Republican convention in San Francisco with enough delegates to win the nomination.
At the convention, Goldwater again courted controversy in his acceptance speech when he said “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” He had a strained relationship with the press; his aides frequently asked journalists to note what the senator meant and not what he said. Johnson’s presidential campaign further attacked Goldwater as “a raving, ranting demagogue who wants to tear down society,” running an infamous TELEVISION campaign advertisement showing a young girl picking petals off a flower while a man’s voice counted down to a nuclear explosion. Gold-water countered that the Johnson administration was “corrupt [and] power-mad, fail[ing] to provide moral leadership or control crime and disorder.” Regardless, Goldwater won only six states and received just 36 percent of the vote.
Goldwater remained out of politics for four years, running for Arizona senator again in 1968, and he was reelected to the position until his retirement in 1987. His efforts to promote conservatism led to the election of Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan and contributed to the rebirth of conservatism in the United States. He died on May 29, 1998, of complications from a stroke.
Further reading: Bart Barnes, “Barry Goldwater, GOP Hero, Dies,” Washington Post, May 30, 1998; Barry Gold-water with Jack Casserly, Goldwater (New York: Doubleday, 1988); Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill & Wang, 2001).
—Adam B. Vary
Gonzales, Rodolfo "Corky" (1929-2005) poet, essayist, activist
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales was one of the most important Chicano civil rights advocates of the 1960s; in addition to his activities as a civic leader, political reformer, and Chicano nationalist, he became widely known for his 1967 epic poem Yo Soy Joaquin (I am Joaquin), which inspired thousands of youthful Chicanos to demand their full civil rights.
Gonzales was born in the Mexican barrio of Denver, Colorado, to seasonal farmworkers. He was forced to move many times during his childhood while his parents sought work. He attended four grade schools, three junior high schools, and two high schools. He later said that his many teachers tried to teach him “how to forget Spanish, to forget my heritage, to forget who I was.” Despite these hardships he graduated from high school at the age of 16. By the age of 10, he was already working alongside his parents in the sugar beet fields. He became interested in boxing as a way to escape poverty. At the age of 20 he entered competitive boxing. In his career he won 65 of his 75 fights. By the end of his ring experience, he was the third-ranked contender for the World Featherweight title.
In 1953, Gonzales left the ring to operate a neighborhood bar and to work as a bail bondsman. He was active in Democratic politics in his hometown of Denver, and he advanced to district captain in 1959. The following year he became coordinator of the Colorado Viva Kennedy campaign that supported JOHN F. Kennedy for the presidency, and chairman of the local War ON POVERTY program. Soon after, he was appointed to the Steering Committee of the Anti-Poverty Program for the Southwest, the national board for Jobs For Progress, and the community board of the Job Opportunity Center, and he became president of the National Citizens Committee for Community Relations. Many Mexican Americans criticized him and called him a puppet in the political system. In early 1966, the Rocky Mountain News, a local newspaper, published reports charging that Gonzales allegedly discriminated against whites and blacks in his antipoverty programs. The mayor of Denver asked Gonzales to resign or told him he would be fired. Gonzales resigned all of his political jobs and ended his Democratic affiliation. Because of this experience, Gonzales lost faith in existing political institutions. The target of his anger and bitterness became the Anglo system.
Soon after his resignation, he developed the Crusade for Justice, a program promoting Chicano self-definition and self-determination. In 1968, he bought an old school and church buildings in a condemned section of the barrio in downtown Denver. He converted the buildings into a school, theater, gym, nursery, and cultural center. During that same year, he and Reies LoPEZ Tijerina led a Chicano contingent in the Poor People’s March on Washington, D. C. There he issued his “Plan of the Barrio,” calling for improved education, with bilingual classes and teachers, and with provisions for teaching the history and culture of Mexican Americans. He also called for better housing, more barrio-owned businesses, and restitution of Spanish and Mexican pueblo land grants.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Gonzales was active in organizing and supporting school walkouts, demonstrations against police brutality, and legal cases on behalf of arrested Chicanos. He called for militant demonstrations among Mexican Americans all over the country to draw attention to their problems. He demanded that the federal government take immediate steps to provide Mexican Americans with equal education and employment opportunities. He also organized mass demonstrations against the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War. He advised Chicano students to refuse to fight in Vietnam because Chicanos were used as “cannon fodder against a beautiful people with whom Chicanos have no quarrel. The fight for freedom, land, culture, and language isn’t in Vietnam. It is here in the Southwest.”
Gonzales made one of the most important contributions to the Chicano Movement in instituting Chicano Youth Liberation conferences that focused and defined goals of Chicano youths. In further developing his ideas of Chicano self-determination and nationalism, he launched the Colorado Raza Party.
In addition to his accomplishments as a civic leader, he achieved a unique position as the foremost poet of the Chicano movement through his poem Yo Soy Joaquin (1967). This epic poem played a central role in the development of Chicano self-identity, especially among youths. Its verses state in part:
I am Joaquin,
Lost in a world of confusion,
Caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,
Confused by the rules,
Scorned by attitudes,
Suppressed by manipulation,
And destroyed by modern society.
Although he suffered a debilitating automobile accident in October 1987, Gonzales continued, in a more subdued manner, his activities in support of civil rights for Chicanos and Native Americans.
Following Gonzales’s 1987 car accident, his health continued to decline. In 2005, Gonzales was diagnosed with renal and coronary disease and, after refusing medical treatment, returned home to spend his remaining time among his family. Rodolfo Gonzales died on April 12, 2005, at the age of 77.
Further reading: Christine Marin, A Spokes-man of the Mexican American Movement: Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and the Fight for Chicano Liberation, 1966—1972 (San Francisco: R & E Research Associates, 1977).
—Elizabeth A. Henke
World History
