The Berks Barrister Summer 2017 - 16

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From My Perspective

What Do Chief
Justice John Marshall
and Addie Mae Collins
Have in Common?
By John J. Duffy, III, Esquire

A

llow me to to suggest a quodlibet:
What makes a life lived by a person
meaningful and impactful? Now
before you might be moved to send critical,
and perhaps snarky, letters to this fine
publication, or worse still, to me, permit me
to say that I do not intend to state or imply
that any person's life is devoid of meaning or
impact. Certainly, all human life is precious
and of the utmost importance.
Do you take my point? I'll consider your
silence to be an assent. In the event that you
are holding your tongue, but still shaking
your head, I shall qualify my question as
follows: What makes a life lived by a person
meaningful and impactful on a large scale?
These queries presented themselves to me
after I saw, at the National Constitution
Center (NCS) in Philadelphia, the exhibit, "John Marshall:
Patriot, Statesman, Chief Justice," and after I attended a panel
discussion, "Remembering Birmingham: Civil Rights And
Constitutional Change," at the NCS on the same day. Permit
me to explain.
I had been asked to write a review of the John Marshall
exhibit, which runs until December 31, 2017, so I traveled to the
NCS, which is located at 545 Arch Street in Philadelphia. The
building, internally and externally, is an impressive structure. Its
external architecture is striking and commanding, and its internal
design uses space in such a way as to convey the awe and aura
of the document to which the museum is devoted. (Should
any architect be reading this, I would beg your forgiveness for
my intruding into your professional space.) Upon my entry
16 | Berks Barrister

into the first level from the parking lot
below the building, and after paying my
admission fee of $14.50, I discovered
that the Marshall exhibit was housed in
a room in one corner, for want of a better
term, of the first level. I decided to take
in an exhibit of documents of James
Wilson, which documents were on loan
to the NCS from the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, prior to fulfilling the
purpose of my visit. It was after viewing
the Wilson documents that I became the
beneficiary of serendipity.
If you are familiar with the NCS,
you probably are aware of the rather
impressive panel discussions, lectures,
and author events presented by it. I had
enjoyed some of these prior to my most
recent visit. While I have found it unfortunate that many of
these are scheduled in the middle of a weekday, I was able to take
advantage of the discussion that I referenced above on the day
of that visit. I became aware of it only by chance as I passed the
main visitors' desk in the lobby. My luck held as I was told that
there would be a seat for me, free of charge, and with validated
parking no less, in the auditorium on the second level. I decided
to attend the discussion before touring the Marshall exhibit.
While I shall speak of the latter before the former, I feel that the
former, in no small way, informs my consideration of the latter.
The John Marshall exhibit is housed in a relatively small
room at the NCS. Owing, I suppose, to the delicate nature
of some of the original documents in the exhibit, the room
is also somewhat dark. I must hasten to state, however, that
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