Lawyer, government official, professor. Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice (1961-1964); Partner, Covington and Burling (1965); General Counsel (1965-1969) and Vice President (1969), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM); Professor of Law, Yale University (1970-2003). Burke Marshall is known for his influence on civil rights legislation during the civil rights movement, in particular his involvement in the 1961 ban on segregation in interstate travel, the integration of the University of Mississippi, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Following his tenure as Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Marshall turned down a deanship at Yale University, worked briefly for the Covington and Burling law firm, and served as both General Counsel and Vice President at the I.B.M Corporation. By 1970, however, he returned to Yale as Deputy Dean and Professor, where he taught political and civil rights classes.
Personal Papers (1944-2003) consist of correspondence, writings, subject files, organizational materials, and legal documents. Topics include civil rights legislation, events, and organizations; Robert F. Kennedy and the Kennedy Family; the John. F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Yale University.
Oral History Interviews (1964, 1970): Marshall completed five interviews for the John F. Kennedy Oral History Program and one interview for the Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Program: JFK#1 interview, 5/29/1964; JFK#2 interview, 6/13/1964; JFK#3 interview, 6/13/1964; JFK#4 interview, 6/14/1964; JFK#5 interview, 6/20/1964; RFK interview, 1/19-20/1970. In the first and second JFK interviews, he discusses the 1961 Freedom Rides, including violence in Birmingham Alabama; negotiations with the governors and public safety officials of Alabama and Mississippi to ensure the safety of the riders; the decision to send federal marshals to Montgomery, Alabama; federal protection for Martin Luther King, Jr.; arrests of the riders; and the eventual desegregation of bus facilities. In the third JFK interview, he discusses school desegregation, the executive order to end discrimination in federally funded housing, attempts at civil rights legislation, and the 1962 Albany, Georgia crisis. In the fourth JFK interview, he discusses the violence surrounding James Howard Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi, the contempt of court case against Mississippi governor Ross R. Barnett, and John F. Kennedy’s judicial appointments. In the fifth JFK interview, he discusses civil rights protests and violence in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1963, crafting the legislations that would become the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, and George C. Wallace’s attempt to stop the desegregation of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, among other issues. The RFK interview has portions closed and is not yet online.
Marshall completed one oral history interview for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in 1968. No interlibrary loan.