{"id":1023,"date":"2022-02-09T01:45:02","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T01:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2022-10-31T02:31:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T02:31:54","slug":"book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/?p=1023","title":{"rendered":"Book Review –"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Book Review - \"A Fighting Life\"<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A moving tribute to the extraordinary life of a man who is best defined through a lifetime of service to the cause of equality, Jim Kershner\u2019s book \u201cA Fighting Life<\/a>\u201d details the humble beginning of twice-orphaned Carl Maxey. Carl Maxey\u2019s life was deeply influenced by the abrupt end of his placement at the Spokane Children\u2019s Home at the age of twelve.\u00a0 After spending his formative years as \u201ca charge of the County,\u201d Carl would learn that he and another young boy were evicted by the unanimous vote of the \u201cgood ladies of society\u201d who decided to \u201chave no more colored children in the Home.\u201d\u00a0 Eventually, Carl would find a home in the most unlikely of places, at the Sacred Heart Mission on the Coeur d\u2019 Alene Reservation.\u00a0 There, due to the kindness of Father Byrnes, a young orphan boy found hope and the necessary tools to succeed.\u00a0<\/p>

The book is set against the backdrop of social and political change during the Civil Rights Era in the mid-sized, northern city of Spokane, Washington.\u00a0 Without losing his way in nostalgia, Kershner celebrates Carl\u2019s early success and fame as the first athlete to bring home a National Championship to Gonzaga University. Kershner details Carl\u2019s life and career with punctuations of reality, reminding the reader that the same City that celebrated \u201cKing Carl\u2019s\u201d rousing victory also barred African Americans from the Davenport Hotel.\u00a0 And, though employed as a waiter at the Spokane Club, Carl had no chance of joining The Club as a member.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Kershner\u2019s telling captures Carl\u2019s unrelenting commitment to his sense of fairness and his life-long devotion to protect the rights of others.\u00a0 A devotion that would inform his work as an attorney on high-profile murder cases, the notorious \u201cSeattle Seven Trial\u201d and his work in local and national politics. But at the center of it all was a truth that Carl could always see. A truth that cost him and those he loved so much.\u00a0 A truth that often-rubbed others the wrong way.\u00a0<\/p>

Kershner includes local commentary and reported criticism from attorneys and judges who claim that Carl could, and would, turn any argument into one about \u201crace\u201d or \u201ccolor.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of pushing back, Kershner suggests this was employed by Carl to gain a legal advantage.\u00a0 But, for a child who lost his home due to the color of his skin, a young man who would serve the white elite their cocktails but could not shake their hand in membership, and as a man who would serve in the United States Army but could not sit next to a white soldier in the canteen.\u00a0 Perhaps it was this, not his exhaustion or his health, but Carl\u2019s clear-eyed ability to see reality for what it was that brought an early end to his life.\u00a0 Perhaps he saw that beneath all the loss, the pain, the battles for equality on the Court steps and in Congress, it always was and had been about color.\u00a0<\/p>

A phenomenal read.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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by Judge Aimee Maurer, Spokane District Court<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Book Review – “A Fighting Life” A moving tribute to the extraordinary life of a man who is best defined through a lifetime of service to the cause of equality, Jim Kershner\u2019s book \u201cA Fighting Life\u201d details the humble beginning of twice-orphaned Carl Maxey. Carl Maxey\u2019s life was deeply influenced by the abrupt end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1372,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions\/1372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wacourthistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}