Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey gave Eunice incredible career opportunities, like appointing her to his team, but he also initially didn’t give her the same level of responsibility as the other lawyers on the team. How did you feel about Eunice’s working relationship with Thomas Dewey? What did you think of his decisions throughout the book? Do you think his view of Eunice changed by the end? Do you think Eunice would face the same sorts of issues if she was in this role today?
I do think that Eunice would be subject to some (but maybe not all) of the problematic treatment today. The forgotten invitations to meetings specifically comes to mind. I think Dewey saw himself as a progressive, forward thinking attorney, but I think he had a lot of blind spots with regard to race, gender and the combination.
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I think Dewey was goal oriented & probably knew Eunice was a professional. But I think he was a man of the times & knew that others would consider her as less capable of being a DA because she first a woman & second a Black woman. Both of these were obstacles & in many ways still are today. I think Dewey was personally impressed with Eunice & the way she carried out her investigations but couldn’t let her differences get in the way of the prosecution of Lucky.
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Eunice was able to build a better relationship with Thomas Dewey by being very tuned in to what he needed from his team to succeed. She went out and gathered information crucial to the legal case and stood her ground when needed to ensure she received credit for her contributions. Because of her strong work ethic and her willingness to speak up when appropriate, I would hope that she would not face the same issues today.
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Well said. He was a man of his time and would not have ever considered that he was guilty of poor or problematic treatment of Eunice. He likely felt she should be thankful to him just for the job, regardless of the throw away assignments he initially gave her.
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I don’t remember if the book went into his motivations for hiring Eunice but he clearly didn’t trust her with high profile responsibilities. He did tell her multiple times the work she was doing was important but when that work actually provided fruitful to his investigation he initially disregarded it and then she had to strong arm him to even get in the courtroom. I honestly don’t think his view of her changed much by the end and unfortunately I feel like she would be subject to similar treatment today.
It was interesting to learn more about Thomas Dewey. I had thought he was just a footnote in history, the guy who did not defeat Harry Truman for the presidency, even though the newspapers were so sure he would that they printed up newspapers with that headline. I think he was a very capable man, but a man of his times. But he was also a man whose goal would not let the mores of the times get in the way of his ultimate goal. Thus, as he worked more and more with Eunice he came to respect her more and more, ultimately acquiescing to the bargain to get her information that led to the more credible witnesses. Hopefully Eunice would not face the same problems in today’s world, or they would be greatly mitigated, I hope.
Thomas Dewey showed support towards Eunice but was restricted by the societal norms and prejudices of the 1930’s. He seemed to value her but couldn’t quite give her the role or respect in public she so richly deserved. I believe by the end of the trial he held her in a much higher regard. I believe women today and women of color today face a harder climb to recognition than we would like to believe.
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I think he was concerned about the fact that she was a woman and a black woman at that. But he also recognized that she was smart and could probably contribute to the team. So he put her in a role that kept her out of the limelight. However, once he started realizing that she had put together more of a case against Lucky than any of the other DAs he started to respect her efforts and listened to her more. He definitely had changed his view by the end. Yes, the same issues face women today.
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I think Dewey respected her and his respect grew as she presented him with more and more evidence to bring Luciano to justice. At the same time, he was practical and didn’t want to risk jeopardizing his case by causing the press to focus on her race.
I think that in those times, Thomas Dewey was acting more progressively than most other men in the field. I can’t speak for the experience of an African American Lawyer, but I am sure some stigmas still exist. As a woman in technology, much has improved - but there is still a ways to go.
Dewey was her superior and for most of the book he seemed to regard her as someone to tolerate but not include. He dismissed her as female (so what could she contribute), as new ( so what could she possibly know), and possibly because she was not white (what good was she). For the most part he treated her as if she were just another piece of furniture in the room. He was close-minded focused on what worked in the past, not what could have developed. Eunice’s persistence and personal initiative resulted in his taking notice and coming to the reality of her extraordinary contributions and ideas, which they then heard and to which they responded.
I would love to say that Eunice would not face any of those issues today, but that just is not possible. I did enjoy trying to figure out that relationship, especially when Dewey’s perspective was generally unknown. It would be difficult to say that Dewey’s opinion of Eunice as a prosecutor did not improve during the story. His explanation for his trial team, while unfair, was reasonable considering the time and place, but I also liked how she still found her way in the room.
Thomas Dewey’s hand was led by the societal norms of that time. Eunice was both black and female, so she actually had two strikes against her. The fact that Dewey tried to include her in the team spoke volumes his character. Although Eunice was excluded from certain meetings and functions, her abilities did not go unnoticed by Dewey.
I believe even today Eunice would not be treated the same as a male in her field.
Dewey’s actions have to analyzed within the context of the time, place, cultural norms. She was in a male dominated profession so misogyny was rampant, and she was the first African-American woman to serve as an asst DA. Racial discrimination and segregation was part of daily life in the 1930’s. And so I could see why he was concerned about the focus of the trial shifting to Eunice, especially since she had already made headlines.
That doesn’t make anything Dewey did right. Rather, it was consistent with how things were done in those days.
Today things would be different. Law is not a male dominated profession any longer, and racial and gender discrimination is illegal so every government agency has EEO policies and procedures, and there would be recourse available to Eunice if she was subjected to discrimination in the workplace.