Jerry Summers
This article is not a pro or anti-writing on the legal and political status of the ex-president who currently has a few problems in the criminal justice system in 2023.
The topic to be discussed is the power of the media and how it can influence the political careers and lives of public individuals in the past and present.
Donald J. Trump has his media foes on the CNN cable channels, Washinton Post, L.A. Times, etc. (the progressive list goes on). Any reader can continue to daily update the ongoing saga both for and against the ex-president in 2023-2024.
From a historical perspective the life and controversial career of the late attorney and judge Raulston Schoolfield, (R.S.) (1905-1982) in Hamilton County and the State of Tennessee are somewhat parallel to Trump’s problems.
Raulston Schoolfield was part of the lineage of a prominent family of lawyers and politicians in the Sequatchie Valley and Chattanooga.
His early life beginning with his birth in 1905 or 1906 was colorful, controversial, and full of political intrigue and difference of opinion by the citizens of Hamilton County, Tennessee, and Georgia.
He was a successful trial attorney. As a criminal defense lawyer his supporters stayed true to him even in adversity similar to that of the past president from New York.
Schoolfield initially received the backing of influential community leaders in his first successful campaign against the incumbent criminal court judge in 1950.
However that relationship quickly became adversarial and the local and state bar associations moved to defeat Schoolfield in the election in 1958 and to impeach (remove) him from office that same year in The Tennessee legislature during a six week trial in the summer of the same year.
There were 31 charges originally brought against ex-judge Schoolfield ranging from the serious charge of accepting bribes from a labor union to using profanity toward an assistant district attorney in a private club setting.
The Tennessee Senate in a hotly contested trial at the State Capitol in Nashville found Schoolfield guilty of three minor charges but acquitted him of the attempt to preclude his right to run for public office.
The state bar association proceeded to file a petition to take away his law license in an attempt to prevent another opportunity to run for a judicial office in the future. The legal organization was successful in that effort but Schoolfield began a second career of running for several public offices prior to 1974.
This caused a lot of uneasy concerns for the ex-judge’s enemies which increased substantially in 1964 when he was elected to the Hamilton County Council that was the governing body of the community.
When Knox County’s legislative delegation passed a Private Act (allowing non-lawyers to be elected as General Sessions Judge) in the third largest county in the state Schoolfield saw another opportunity to return to the judicial bench and to further antagonize his foes of the past.
He waited until the last hour on the last day to qualify for the position in March 1974 and his entry into a crowded Democratic Primary allowed him to win the nomination and then defeat a Republican opponent in the General Election.
The loyal devotion of Raulston Schoolfield’s supporters who believed in him in spite of any highly publicized weaknesses is reminiscent of the accusations faced by Donald J. Trump in 2023-2024.
To the surprise of some foes, R.S. was thought by many courthouse observers to be a judge who conducted his courtroom proceedings in a fair and impartial manner, except that he never backed away from his belief in segregation of the races.
Like Trump he was attacked by local and state media for his outspoken positions that accelerated into his race for Governor in 1954 in the Democrat Primary against Frank Goad Clement (and Gordon Browning) on the single issue of segregation/integration.
This resulted in a life long political feud between him and Clement who undeniably was involved in the impeachable proceedings of R.S.
Criticism by the news media and his opponents diminished over his second 8 year term as general sessions judge from 1974-1982.
He faced token opposition from a Republican candidate in the August, 1982 general election while running as part of a three person Democrat judicial team and was re-elected.
The anti-Schoolfield news media had one parting shot against the veteran lawyer, judge and politician when he died suddenly at of a heart attack at the age of 77 on October 5, 1982.
Schoolfield had attended a charitable event, “Love of Chattanooa”, honoring a member of one Chattanooga’s prominent pioneer families for her many acts of philanthropy at the Chattanoogan Hotel. Sitting at one of the tables with him was a Circuit Court Judge (S.P.) who was also a lay Episcopal priest and the Hamilton County Executive (D.R.) who both verified that he had not been drinking or engaged in any inappropriate conduct at the public forum.
However a newspaper in Middle Tennessee deemed it necessary to take one last shot at the old warrior when it stated in an editorial comment on October 7, 1982 that “Schoolfield, 77, died of a heart attack early yesterday after spending the night at a local night club.”
One of the individuals (D.R.) reacted to the statement by said newspaper and wrote a letter that was duly reported as an Editor’s Note, “Hits Inaccuracy”. He also requested a retraction of the comments and that a copy be sent to Schoolfield’s widow at her home address. It was later reported that a correction was made.
The term “enigma” (difficult to understand) described Scott Raulston Schoolfield for his entire life (1905-1992)! (There is even a dispute about the year of his birth).
(P.S.- There are many different issues between the lives of Raulston Schoolfield and Donald Trump but there are also many similarities.)
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com