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Career of Judge Harlington Wood Jr. is focus of U. of I. Library exhibit
Andrea
Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@illinois.edu
|
5/2/2005
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
An exhibit chronicling the “long and extraordinary” career
of federal judge Harlington Wood Jr., a high-ranking public servant
who, among other critical roles, served as chief negotiator for the
U.S. Department of Justice at Wounded Knee, is running at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his alma mater.
Titled “Judge Harlington Wood, Jr.: A ‘Most Lincolnesque
Man,’ ” the exhibit largely focuses on Wood’s role
as negotiator during protests at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, and in Washington, D.C., and at Miami Beach.
The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, runs through May
10 at the Rare Book and Special
Collections Library, Room 346 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana.
Wood, 85, lives in Petersburg, Ill., near his birthplace in Springfield.
He gave his papers to the Library’s Illinois
Historical Survey and Lincoln Room in 2003 and 2004.
Present as a U.S. Army officer at the surrender of Japanese forces in
the Philippines in 1945, Wood was a lawyer in Springfield before being
appointed to a succession of federal jobs, including U.S. Attorney,
head of the civil division of the Justice Department, district judge
and judge of the Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit in Chicago.
He earned his bachelor’s and his law degrees at the U. of I. in
1942 and 1948, respectively.
During the 1971 MayDay demonstrations in Washington, D.C., the 1972
political conventions at Miami Beach and the 1973 standoff at Wounded
Knee, Wood helped with negotiations between protesters and law-enforcement
agencies, and coordinated the government’s on-scene response.
“His refusal to authorize the use of force at Wounded Knee worked
successfully to bring about a nonviolent end to the conflict,”
said Adam Groves, a graduate student in library science at Illinois,
who processed the Wood papers and produced the exhibit.
“Attorney General Richard Kleindienst described Wood as ‘the
most Lincolnesque man I’ve known,’ ” Groves said.
Appointed by three presidents – Eisenhower, Nixon (twice) and
Ford – Wood described himself in his personal account of Wounded
Knee as “an ordinary Midwestern lawyer who unexpectedly found
himself in the middle of an extraordinary situation and had to do something
about it.”
The incident at Wounded Knee began on Feb. 27, 1973, when some 200 armed
members of the American Indian Movement seized control of the site,
taking several hostages and demanding that Nixon negotiate a settlement
with them based on Sioux treaties.
Instead, Nixon called for force: 300 FBI agents, U.S. marshals and Bureau
of Indian Affairs officials surrounded Wounded Knee. Two divisions of
federal troops with helicopters, jetfighters, tanks, machine guns and
field rockets were called in as support.
On March 12, Wood was sent to take charge of the deteriorating situation,
in his words, to “recapture Wounded Knee for the government”
by “forceful law-enforcement means.”
Against all advice, the 6-foot-4-inch government representative in buckskin
jacket, jeans and boots – his ranch clothes from Illinois –
arrived at Wounded Knee “alone, unarmed and unprotected,”
Groves said.
Wood, disagreeing that all peaceful options had been explored, urged
a program of “continued patience, discussion and negotiation,
and as a last resort before force, of seeking some judicial assistance
from the federal court in South Dakota.”
He later wrote that author Dee Brown’s description of the first
Wounded Knee incident in 1890 – when the Army massacred 300 Sioux
– “flashed through my mind. I determined that I absolutely
would not preside over a possible second massacre at Wounded Knee, even
if it meant submitting my resignation then and there and returning to
private practice in Springfield. This was one mistake that I was determined
not to make.”
Recalling the scene, Ramon Roubideaux, attorney for the Oglala Sioux,
was quoted as saying: “It was quite a sight to see Wood stride
into Wounded Knee. He was the first real man to come along offering
that we get together and settle this thing.
“He took the bull by the horns and said he wanted to end this
shooting. If there were more like him in government, we wouldn’t
have any problems.”
Wood entered the compound several times over the next few weeks until
illness forced him to return to Washington, D.C. “Although he
was not in command when the AIM peacefully surrendered to federal forces
on May 7, Wood is widely credited with turning the tide toward a peaceful
resolution,” Groves said.
Among the items on display are artifacts, photographs and presidential
certificates, many of them chronicling Wood’s time in the Justice
Department. For example, the exhibit includes a 1971 permit he issued
to anti-war protesters; correspondence from Warren E. Burger, J. Edgar
Hoover, William Rehnquist and Donald Rumsfeld; and a memo detailing
the immigration status of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
The exhibit also illustrates Wood’s career as a thespian. Tall
and lean, he played Lincoln in “Forever This Land” at New
Salem, Ill., in 1951 and 1952. Wood’s well-received portrayal
of Lincoln by The New York Times’ drama critic Brooks Atkinson
and others led to many other performances, including one at the University
of Illinois in 1958.
Wood also was an officer in the 7th Illinois Cavalry Reactivated, a
Civil War re-enactment troop. The unit rode in many celebrations, including
President Jimmy Carter’s inaugural parade.
More about the collection is at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ihx/woodcollection.htm.
For more information about the exhibit, contact Groves at 217-333-1777
or at agroves@illinois.edu.
