As Martin Luther King, Jr., Day approaches each year, I remember how fortunate I was to work for one of the great African-American leaders in Nevada when I first graduated from law school, Judge Addeliar D. Guy, III.
The first African-American judge in the state of Nevada, he was a pioneer in the Clark County District Attorney's office before deciding to run for judge. I was fortunate to be his Judicial Law Clerk for a year before going into private practice because Judge Guy was one of the smartest men I ever knew, having what my dad called "both book smarts and street smarts." Growing up in Chicago, he was already married and had children when he put himself through law school while driving a cab each night ... I can't imagine how he had time to actually study.
Judge Guy was one of the hardest-working people I have ever met ... which meant I worked hard, too. (In fact, I remember thinking that private practice was way easier than working for Judge Guy, because our working relationship was more like a fourth year of law school.) I prepared every single case for him, he read it, and then he asked my opinion regarding what he should do. After hearing my opinion, we discussed the differences between what he was planning to do (which sometimes did change if he received new information during the hearings) and, more importantly, why he was planning to do it. If something did change, he took the time later to tell me what the new information was and why it changed his mind. These conversations were held in the Socratic style ... yes, it was truly my fourth, and best, year of law school.
I once asked Judge Guy what he thought about a holiday being named after MLK (at the time, there was controversy because Arizona had not yet adopted it). Judge Guy just smiled broadly at me, waited a few moments, and then laughed. He said, "I think Martin Luther King would have said, 'if you have a job, go to work,'" ... and then he paused for a few moments before telling me about segregation in Las Vegas, and the places where he would not have been able to go that he could go now ... and that he would not have been able to be a judge.
Judge Guy was already 70 years old when I worked for him in 1992. He had lived through segregation and desegregation. I lived through de facto segregation growing up in Georgia, but never had it forced upon me. As a kid, I know there was no one of (any) color living in my neighborhood. I have vague memories of seeing water fountains in downtown Atlanta marked "white," but they were merely relics from a time gone by since I was born in 1968. As a little white girl from Georgia, I often think how much I would have missed out on if I had been born earlier ... and not been able to work for, and with, such a remarkable man.
Every year on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, I think about Judge Addeliar D. Guy, III ... may everyone have the experience to learn from someone who made history, like I did.
May his memory be for a blessing. Kayn y'hi ratzon.
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