The story of a powerful Western New Yorker is now being told in a documentary. Liberty Under Law: The Robert H. Jackson Story will air Tuesday, December 22nd at 10 p.m. on WNED-Television. WBFO's Eileen Buckley sat down with the co-founder of The Robert H. Jackson Center to discuss the man who remains the only one in United States history to serve in three federal legal positions.
Robert Jackson grew up in the rural town of Frewsburg, NY in Chautauqua County. Gregory Peterson, Co-founder of The Robert H. Jackson Center. He's an attorney at the Jamestown offices of Phillips Lytle.
Peterson is an expert on Jackson. The center carries out his legacy.
"Name the only person in the history of the United States to be a Solicitor General, an Attorney General, and a Justice to the Supreme Court, and in addition to that he was Chief American Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials," said Peterson. "He's a gentleman who was born a farmer just over the border in Pennsylvania, was raised in Western New York, practiced in Western New York."
Jackson never attended college or completed law school.
Peterson points to Jackson's opening sentence from the start of the Nuremberg Trials, some 70-years ago. "That one sentence talks about the importance of the rule of law," said Peterson.
Peterson said he learned some new information about Jackson in this new documentary.
"You're going to find some interesting pieces dealing with a relationship with J. Eager Hoover, FBI, President Roosevelt and I watched it for the first time and said 'I never knew that', that's the beauty of Justice Jackson," noted Peterson.
Jackson's story has been incorporated into the Common Core Learning Standards. The State Board of Regents had adopted a history curriculum that now includes the teachings of Robert Jackson and his writings at the Nuremberg Trial.
"Which is a remarkable opportunity, because now it is written in stone and every individual at a certain grade level in New York State will be studying Robert Jackson, who's a Western New York person -- a person who's name adorns our federal court house here in Buffalo," said Peterson.
