A New York Times’ obituary is so much more than an announcement of death. It is a concise biography of a fascinating, influential person.
And sometimes, as in the case of this obituary for the civil rights lawyer Julius Chamber, an obit can be a short yet dense history of an important era to which this man meant so much.
This piece taught me a lot I didn’t know and reminded me of many things I never want to forget, especially now that the Supreme Court has officially banned them from legal memory and application.