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In the summer of 2000, the family of Arthur J. Goldberg donated his personal working library, a selection of his papers (mostly speeches and articles) from the 1960s to the 1980s, and other items to Radford University's McConnell Library and the Radford University Archives. Arthur Goldberg was a labor lawyer, United States Secretary of Labor (1961-1962), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1962-1965), and United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1965-1968).
The Radford University Archives is the repository of Justice Goldberg's personal papers created from the 1960s to the 1980s, political cartoons featuring Goldberg when he was Secretary of Labor and UN Ambassador, and framed and unframed photographs from throughout his government service and afterwards. These items, also donated by the Goldberg family, are more fully described in the Scope and Content Note immediately following the Biographical Note. Note: Neither Radford University nor the John Preston McConnell Library nor the Radford University Archives holds the copyright on the Goldberg papers that repose in the University Archives. ____________________________________________________________ Biographical Note
Goldberg graduated summa cum laude as the valedictorian from law school in 1929. He opened his own practice in 1933 and became involved in the labor movement through his political activities on behalf of President Roosevelt. In 1938, a year after being admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, Goldberg defended the Chicago Newspaper Guild then on strike against the Hearst Corporation. Soon after the U.S. declared war against the Axis powers in World War II, Goldberg was a special assistant with the Office of Strategic Services. He infiltrated enemy lines and organized anti-Nazi European transportation workers into an extensive intelligence network. In 1944, Arthur Goldberg was discharged with the rank of major and returned to his Chicago law practice. He taught law at the John Marshall Law School and lectured at the Chicago School of Industrial Relations. By 1948, Goldberg was the General Counsel for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the United Steelworkers of America. Goldberg was instrumental during this period in bringing about the merger of the CIO with the American Federation of Labor into the AFL-CIO. In 1961, Goldberg was appointed Secretary of Labor by John F. Kennedy, serving in that post until his appointment in 1962 as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He served on the Court until 1965 when Lyndon Johnson asked him to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. His frustration at the continuing escalation of the Vietnam War prompted him to resign his UN post in 1968. Goldberg resigned his ambassadorship in 1968 to return once again to the practice of law and in 1970 made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of New York. In the late 1970s, he served as President Jimmy Carter's Ambassador-at-large on human rights issues. During the 1987-1989 academic years, Justice Goldberg served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Radford University, teaching a political science class concentrating on constitutional issues. Justice Goldberg married Dorothy Kurgans in 1931and had two children, Barbara and Robert. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1990 at the age of 81.
Scope and Content Note
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McConnell Library,
PO Box 6881,
801 East Main Street,
Radford, VA 24142-6881. Last Modified:
January 9, 2008
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