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What'sHerName

THE FAIR LABOR LAWYER Bessie Margolin

What'sHerName

Dr. Katie Nelson and Olivia Meikle

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 538 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2018

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bessie Margolin grew up in the New Orleans Jewish Orphan’s Home, was one of the first women to graduate from Tulane Law School and earned her PhD in Law from Yale University in 1932. Her groundbreaking work as Assistant Solicitor of Labor for the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act championed many of the wage and hour rights Americans take for granted today and enshrined in law the basic human dignity of American workers. She still ranks sixth for most arguments at the Supreme Court by a woman, and her brilliance in banter with the Justices is legendary. Margolin’s passionate dedication to her life’s work made an indelible impact on American legal history and the lives of ordinary Americans. It also shaped the life of our guest Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin. Trestman followed Margolin’s guidance and her model from fellow ward of the New Orleans Jewish Children’s service to study at a prestigious law school, and finally to admission at the Supreme Court. Guest Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin (LSU Press), is currently at work on a collective biography, Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The History of New Orleans’s Jewish Orphans’ Home, 1855-1946. Both books draw on experience. Lawyer-turned-author Trestman, who has won funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, American Jewish Archives, Supreme Court Historical Society, and Texas Jewish Historical Society, had a personal relationship with Margolin prompted by common childhood experiences; Margolin grew up in the orphanage and Trestman was a ward of the successor agency. Music featured in this episode by The New Hot 5, Jeff Cuno, Peak Duo, and Trialogo. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Now, are all the traitors present? Let's get started, shall we? From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this.

0:07.0

Working like a dog and being treated worse. Yorkshire to New York. Or climbers, you and me.

0:12.4

A life dedicated to revenge. Let's make this an occasion to remember. A woman of substance on Channel 4,

0:19.1

stream now. This episode was sponsored by Girls Can Crate.

0:22.8

A subscription box inspiring girls to believe they can be and do anything.

0:35.2

Hi, Katie. Hi, Olivia.

0:39.0

Why do you do what you do?

0:43.8

You're a history professor.

0:45.7

Oh, okay. I thought you meant just broadly.

0:48.5

Yeah, I don't. Like, to narrow the question.

0:52.0

You're a history professor.

0:54.0

Okay. Why are you a history professor?

0:58.2

Because I love history. I find it fascinating and enlightening. I love storytelling,

1:07.4

which I think gets at the core of what it is to be human. But I think mostly something I

1:14.5

love to do is to get a room full of people who couldn't care less about something and try to make

1:23.1

them care. I really enjoy that challenge. That's what you're best at.

1:28.9

Forcing people to find things interesting by your sheer interestingness.

1:35.3

You will be captivated by this.

1:39.2

You will care. You will.

1:42.0

I love the challenge of that.

1:55.0

Give me something immensely dull, and I will just revel in trying to make it compelling. I teach women's studies, and I think the thing that I like the most about it is I love teaching literature,

2:04.6

but I realized really what I want to do is teach women's studies because it's instant gratification.

...

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