Book Review INVISIBLE: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF THE BLACK WOMAN LAWYER WHO TOOK DOWN AMERICA’S MOST POWERFUL MOBSTER

By STEPHEN L. CARTER

Reviewed by Eric J. Taylor, Esquire

Here in Berks County over the last several months, two female lawyers have broken new ground. Judge M. Theresa Johnson became Berks County’s first female President Judge, and Attorney Gabriela Raful became the first Latina and minority female President of our Berks County Bar Association. I recently read about another female lawyer who, akin to Judge Johnson and Attorney Raful, was also a legal pioneer. And like Attorney Raful, this trailblazer was also a female minority lawyer; however, she worked about a century ago, when there were far fewer female lawyers.

The biography of this lawyer, Eunice Hunton Carter, was written by her grandson. Eunice, truly a trailblazer, graduated cum laude from Smith College, and she was only the second woman in the history of the college to receive both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in four years. The New York Bar Association did not admit a black lawyer until 1929, and she became one of the first in 1933. The first black law students were not even admitted until the 1920s, and of the 535 students that enrolled at Fordham Law School in the same year Eunice did, only seven women graduated three years later. An indication of how underrepresented women were in the law school is that around the time Eunice enrolled, a women’s bathroom had to be built. And much later in her distinguished career, Eunice became the first black woman to receive an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Smith College.

When Thomas E. Dewey was appointed to be a special prosecutor in New York to go after the mob, he hired 20 lawyers – 19 of them were white males, and Eunice was the twentieth. At that time there were maybe “a couple dozen” of female prosecutors in the entire country, and only one or two of them were black. Later Eunice was made a deputy assistant district attorney, making her the first woman to hold the post, and at $5,500 a year (in 1938), one of the highest earning black lawyers in the country.

Eunice implemented some revolutionary changes, which were later made in courts and the district attorneys’ offices throughout our country. Eunice had urged Dewey to reduce or drop charges against defendants who testified against their bosses in the prosecution of mobster Lucky Luciano, and she continued to use this innovative, yet at the time controversial, strategy, which has since been made “a permanent addition to the armamentarium of the prosecutor’s office.” It is hard for me to imagine prosecutors not utilizing this tool of offering cooperation to underlings of the heads of criminal organizations. Eunice was also concerned with how the legal system treated juveniles, so she created a first in the nation system wherein those non-violent offenders between 16 and 18 years old would “in most cases have their names kept secret and be spared prison terms, in the hope of furthering their rehabilitation.” Here in Pennsylvania, this is how we treat most juvenile defendants, where we close our juvenile criminal courts to the public.

I will interject that my biggest displeasure with Invisible was that its subtitle (which is The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster), the prologue and cover of the book misled me into believing that Eunice actually prosecuted the case against Luciano, who was a prominent mobster at this time. While Eunice greatly helped in preparing and building the case and had the idea for the raids that ultimately secured the prosecution witnesses, Eunice was not the prosecutor. In fact, Eunice did not even enter her appearance in the trial. Now it is not surprising, in that era, that as a black woman Eunice was denied having a role at the trial even though she was fundamental in developing the prosecution’s case. Nevertheless, the book misled me into believing that she did. However, I have no other major criticisms about this biography and enjoyed reading and learning about Eunice’s life and the prosecution of Luciano.

Particularly entertaining in the Luciano trial were the three primary prosecution witnesses, all of whom were female prostitutes who admitted that the prosecution had threatened them with prison if they refused to testify. One of these three witnesses was a heroin addict, and at three different times during the trial, the judge allowed her to have a sip of brandy while testifying to “steady her nerves.” And although this judge had no problem with this witness drinking alcohol while testifying, the judge also granted a defense lawyer’s request that this same witness prove that she was not under the influence (presumably of heroin and not the brandy the judge allowed her to drink). So doctors examined her in another room and, after doing so, declared her to be drug free. I found it unfathomable that a judge would not only permit a witness to drink alcohol while on the stand, but also be examined by a physician to ensure her sobriety! The trial resulted in the conviction of Luciano and all nine of his co-defendants on nearly all counts, and the judge sentenced Luciano to 30 to 50 years in prison.

Eunice circulated with and was connected to many famous and influential people. Eunice was friends with Calvin Coolidge a few years before he became president. She was once on a radio show with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Despite their differences in politics, Eunice became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. She was also friends with future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as well as civil rights activists W. E. B. DuBois and Mary McLeod Bethune. And she not only worked under Dewey, but she also stumped for him in his successful campaign to become New York’s Governor and in his unsuccessful campaigns to become President of the United States.

This biography did not shy away from depicting Eunice’s flaws and an imperfect life. The author notes that Eunice was “stern and distant,” "judgmental and often dismissive”, and was “impatient.” Her marriage must not have been easy, as her husband apparently had a lot of affairs. Eunice herself may have had an affair, and she considered leaving her husband, though at that time divorces were rare in ‘better’ families. And while Eunice had only one child, she delegated raising him to others, as at various times she sent him to live in New Jersey, to a prep school in upstate New York, and to Barbados for five years, where she did not see her son while he was there for an entire year.

But these issues neither mar the person, her accomplishments, nor the book. I enjoyed reading about Eunice, whom I had never heard about previously, and about her remarkable life and accomplishments, including her role in the prosecution of the wild Luciano trial from nearly a century ago. Eunice helped pave the way for female lawyers that followed in her path like President Judge Johnson and Berks County Bar Association President Raful nearly one hundred years later. Mr. Taylor is a Magisterial District Judge serving West Reading and