Summary

What Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Say? – Stop and Search, 1995. This chapter begins with the author’s consideration of a black woman who came to his office on what he and his colleagues called “duty day” – a day on which the lawyer on duty talked with anyone who came in, at any time, about any subject. This particular woman was asking for help removing an arrest from her record, an arrest (for possession of a small amount of marijuana) without charge or conviction that had cost her her job. After making some investigations and some phone calls, the author says, he found that her employer’s decision to fire her stood. After she left almost in tears, he says, he found some papers she had left behind, documenting the struggles she had overcome and the reputation she had established.

The author uses...