Word: cochran
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...JOHNNIE COCHRAN JR. The architect of O.J. Simpson's acquittal let the nation see justice in black and white...
WHEN CHRONICLERS OF THIS CHARGED ERA sift through the moments, grand and trivial, that were called turning points in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, they may well conclude that Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. did not, in fact, play the "race card." He didn't have to because in many ways Cochran was the race card--a lawyer who had built a lucrative career representing minority victims of police misconduct. By the time he joined what was to become known as the Dream Team, Cochran, 58, had already won some $45 million in damages and an impressive rate of acquittal...
...would be easy to caricature Cochran, the self-made man born in Louisiana and raised in Los Angeles, with his sherbet-colored suits and his blue Rolls-Royce, his honeyed voice and revival-meeting cadences. It is worth pointing out that even as he preaches justice for society's outsiders, he is himself the consummate insider, with a roster of clients that have included Michael Jackson, Snoop Doggy Dogg and former Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown, and a circle of friends who are among the most politically connected in all Los Angeles. His courtroom charisma, however, cannot be copied...
...many blacks jubilant. As the nation regarded itself on this split screen, it became apparent that the truths we hold to be self-evident are perhaps evident only to some: justice has a different meaning for the minority motorist pulled over for speeding or for no reason at all. Cochran skillfully managed to make O.J. Simpson, with his white wife and his country-club friends, the unlikely symbol of this ugly racial truth--and so exploited the media frenzy of a celebrity case to deliver a message too often ignored by white America. Never mind that many Americans, white...
...other minority groups, such as feminists, gays and Latinos. The O.J. Simpson trial was seen by many as a symbol of racial strife; Dyson sees some hope. "Its major players are a virtual rainbow of color, gender, ethnicity, and class," he says. "Judge Lance Ito is Asian-American. Johnnie Cochran is African-American. Marcia Clark is a white woman. And Robert Shapiro, like Clark, is Jewish. A judicial landmark is being constructed by people who a few decades ago couldn't stand equally together in the same court...