Influential American civil rights lawyer who survived the McCarthy witch hunts to campaign against racism and poverty

Mary Clemmey
Guardian

Monday November 19, 2001

Guardian

Monday November 19, 2001

Robert Treuhaft, who has died aged 89, was a crusading American lawyer who championed left-wing causes for more than 60 years, in particular the rights of trade unionists and blacks. In the 1950s, a House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) pamphlet named him as among the 39 most subversive lawyers in the country. By then he was married to Jessica (Decca) Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters, whose book The American Way of Death was inspired (and partly written) by Treuhaft.

The two had met in Washington DC, in 1943: he was the son of first generation Hungarian Jewish immigrants who had settled in the Bronx; she was, by then, a war widow with a two-year-old daughter, Constancia. They were colleagues, working for President Roosevelt's wartime civil service, since he had been rejected on medical grounds for military service.

When, in 1943, they moved to San Francisco, they married.

Bob, who had won a scholarship to Harvard and graduated in 1934, set up a law office in Oakland with his colleague, Bert Edises, in 1946. At that time it was the only left-wing legal firm in the county, constantly in the courts, fighting labour injunctions over the post-war strikes; the firm was also unpaid counsel for the newly formed Civil Rights Congress and in the fight against the craft unions which would not admit blacks.

When Bob left to form his own firm, with Dobby Walker, the two tackled cases others shunned and those which offered little hope of fees. Their work in labour legislation helped break segregationist practices in the unions; they fought police beatings and false arrests and Bob was in the forefront of the defence of poor blacks who had been beaten up and framed.

One case, in particular, illustrates his patience and tenacity in the face of the white Oakland establishment. Jerry Newsom, an 18-year-old black shoe-shine boy, had been framed for murder and sentenced to death. Bob took the case for no fee and stayed with it through three trials until the charges were thrown out. He was also at the front of the fight against housing segregation.

Both Bob and Decca had joined the US Communist Party. When Bob's future law firm partner, Dobby Walker, asked them if they would be interested in joining, they replied in chorus, "We thought you would never ask". They were targeted by the red-baiters and in 1951, at the start of the legislative witchhunt in California, Bob was subpoenaed by the California State Committee on Unamerican Activities and then in 1953 for the national HUAC hearings in San Francisco. They left the party in 1958.

He used his spare time helping to organise the Bay Area Funeral Society where he found out that his clients, widowed by industrial accidents, were being charged extortionate prices for funeral expenses. Decca, unsure of her writing skill and used to committee work formed the "book committee" and Bob became "super roarer, super speller, super editor. He cheered when it was going well, sympathised when it was not . . . had I not been sustained by Bob and the committee I should have soon abandoned my effort."

Publishing political writing seemed a lost cause in the climate of the time so, at Bob's urging, she started to write about the Bay Area Funeral Society. He took a year off his legal work to do the research. When The American Way of Death was finally published in 1963 it became a bestseller. More importantly, it resulted in legislative change and influenced Robert Kennedy in his choice of coffin for his brother, John Kennedy.

By then, a radical revival was in the making and Bob was involved in defending activists in the Berkeley free speech movement (he was arrested at a sit-in), the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement. He fully supported and enjoyed the fact that Decca's new-found media prominence enabled her to reach millions instead of dozens with their shared political views.

Their home was a hub of left-wing activity, a stopping-off point for visiting young people who were welcomed, inspired and entertained. For alongside their politics, Bob and Decca were known for having fun. He knew all the words to labour songs, blues, Cole Porter tunes, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hart; and he and Decca would often regale guests at their London supper parties with renderings of these. His dry wit and impishness complemented Decca's rollicking humour and both loved to puncture the stuffed shirts.

People loved Bob because of his manifest integrity and courage. He had an instinctive respect for others and was a mentor to countless young lawyers, including Hillary Clinton, and his black receptionist, whom he encouraged to go to law school, said: "He was the wings under my wings."

Jessica Mitford died in 1996. He is survived by his stepdaughter Constancia (Dinky), and son Benjamin, a piano tuner; another son died in a road accident at the age of 11.

· Robert Edward Treuhaft, lawyer, born August 8 1912; died November 11 2001