
The Butler's Child
Thomas Dunne Books (Publisher)
Published on 14. June 2016
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-250-07300-6 (ISBN)
Description
The Butler's Child is the personal story of a Warner Brothers family grandson who spent more than fifty years as a fighting, no holds barred civil rights lawyer. Lewis explores why he, a privileged white man, devoted his life to seeking racial progress in often uncomprehending or hostile courts. In fact, after writing a feature for The New York Times Magazine entitled "Nine Men in Black Who Think White," Lewis was fired from the NAACP and the entire board of the NAACP resigned in support of him. Lewis speaks about his family butler, an African American man named William Rutherford, who helped raise Lewis, and their deep but ultimately troubled relationship, as well as how Robert L. Carter, the NAACP's extraordinary general counsel, became Lewis' mentor, father figure and lifelong close friend. Lewis exposes the conflicts which arose from living and working in two very different worlds - that of the Warner Brothers family and that of a civil rights lawyer. He also explores his more than fifty year marriage and love of Kitty Muldoon, how they raised their three children, as well as their efforts to bridge two very different Jewish and Irish American families.
Lewis' work with the NAACP set civil rights law and legal precedents still at work today; The Butler's Child is also an insider's look into some of the most important civil rights cases during the turbulent 1960s.
Lewis' work with the NAACP set civil rights law and legal precedents still at work today; The Butler's Child is also an insider's look into some of the most important civil rights cases during the turbulent 1960s.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
528 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-250-07300-6 (9781250073006)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2025
Thomas Dunne Books
€19.25
Available for download
Persons
LEWIS M. STEEL worked as a lawyer for the NAACP and is now Senior Counsel to Outten & Golden LLP. He works on a range of class action cases involving sexual and racial discrimination and overtime claims. His precedent-setting decisions include Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. v. Avagliano, 457 U.S. 176, which established that American subsidiaries of foreign corporations must obey American civil rights laws. He lives in NY.