Abram, Morris Berthold

▪ 2001

      American lawyer and civil and human rights advocate (b. June 19, 1918, Fitzgerald, Ga.—d. March 16, 2000, Geneva, Switz.), fought a 14-year battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to overthrow a Georgia electoral rule that gave ballots cast by rural voters, most of whom were white, greater strength than those cast by urban, mostly black, voters. The Supreme Court's landmark 1963 declaration that the rule was unconstitutional struck a blow against segregation and upheld the principle of one voter, one vote. Abram graduated (1938) summa cum laude from the University of Georgia and was selected to be a Rhodes scholar, but Great Britain's entrance into World War II temporarily halted his plans to attend the University of Oxford. He instead enrolled in the University of Chicago Law School. Following graduation (1940) and military service, however, Abram did attend Oxford and earned bachelor's (1948) and master's (1953) degrees. Abram began his struggle against the Georgia electoral rule in 1949 and himself fell victim to it when, running on a desegregation platform, he failed in an attempt to become a Democratic Party nominee in the 1953 congressional election even though he carried a populous urban county. In 1961 Pres. John F. Kennedy appointed Abram the first general counsel to the Peace Corps, and he went on to serve on commissions and panels under four more presidents. He also served as national president of the American Jewish Committee (1963–68), chairman of the United Negro College Fund (1970–79), chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (1983–88), and chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations (1986–88). Abram was a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1963 until 1983, except for two turbulent years (1968–70) during which he served as president of Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., and in 1993 he became counsel to that law firm. Also in 1993, with Edgar M. Bronfman, Abram cofounded UN Watch, and he served as its chairman until his death. His autobiography, The Day Is Short, was published in 1982.

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