William B. Gould IV : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- William B. Gould IV is an emeritus professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in labor and employment discrimination law. He is a renowned litigator, arbitrator, writer, and speaker dedicated to the promotion of fair labor practices. In this oral history, Gould describes his family background and highlights experiences from his legal career and service as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1994 to 1998 during the Clinton administration. Gould discusses the important role his father played in his life; the diary left by his great- grandfather who escaped from slavery in North Carolina; his undergraduate and legal education; and his work with the United Automobile Workers. He describes the circumstances that led him to pursue an academic career, his appointment to the faculty of Stanford Law School in 1972, and some of the important cases he has worked on, including Stamps v. Detroit Edison Company.
- Summary
- Admiration for and memories of his late father William B. Gould III • Great-grandfather’s escape from slavery and service in the United States Navy during the Civil War • Diary of a Contraband and researching his family history • Mixed race background • Father’s membership in the National Rifle Association and attitudes towards guns and the military • Coming to terms with his racial identity as a child and making decisions about whether or not to pass as white • Inspired by Brown v. Board of Education and civil rights movement, as well as the Army-McCarthy hearings to become a lawyer • Love for baseball and the Red Sox • Memories of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella • Education at public schools in Long Branch, New Jersey • Changing his study habits while an undergraduate at University of Rhode Island • Friendship with Eugene Angrist • Protesting segregated fraternities and living accommodations at University of Rhode Island • Dissatisfied with the curriculum at Cornell Law School • Connection with professor and labor arbitrator Kurt Hanslowe leading to a job with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) • Meeting Walter Reuter • Interests in labor litigation, scholarly writing, and politics crystalized at UAW • Leaving the UAW for the London School of Economics • Meeting wife in London • Tutor Otto Kahn-Freund • UAW connections leading to meeting prominent British and European government officials • US Information Agency invitation to give talks abroad • Growing interest and involvement in South African politics in 1970s • Meeting Nelson Mandela • Focus on employment discrimination • Involvement in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) thanks to Jacob Sheinkman • Appointment as chair of NLRB • Work on racial discrimination in labor unions • Stamps v. Detroit Edison Company • Legal assistant for the NLRB during the Kennedy administration • Private practice in New York City with noted mediator Theodore Kheel • Gaining experience in arbitration • Transition to teaching at Wayne State University Law School • Participation in dispute resolution, especially fact-finding, involving public employee unions • Law review articles on the tension between arbitration and employment discrimination • Visiting professorship at Harvard Law School • Recruitment to Stanford Law School and decision to accept the position • Challenges as the first black law professor at Stanford • Memories of the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., and RFK • Law review articles on tension between arbitration and employment discrimination • Friendship with Jack Pemberton • Stamps v. Detroit Edison Company • Cases on the unfair treatment of black and Latino truck drivers • Black Musicians of Pittsburgh v. Local 60-471 • Arbitration and mediation compared • Singing in choir with his father and taking piano lessons • Adoration for Count Basie and jazz music • His favorite radio station, KCSM • Memories of listening to jazz on the radio with his father • Discussion of the gig economy compared to the traditional employment relationship • Diary of a Contraband excerpts • Reflections on Stanford Law School in the 1970s • Racist comments from insensitive Law School colleagues during his first years at Stanford • Friendship with Law School colleague Miguel Méndez • Pride in his students • Shaping the next generation • Approach to teaching • Teaching labor law and employment discrimination law • Developing a popular sports law seminar with Alvin Attles and Leonard Koppett • 1994-95 Major League Baseball Players Strike and NLRB involvement • Grants and leaves of absences • Unsuccessful efforts to gain admission of a South African student at the Stanford Law School • Writing A Primer on American Law • His most popular books, Japan’s Reshaping and Black Workers in White Unions • How Japan handled the American system being imposed on them • Reflections on the gig economy • His role with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board under Governor Jerry Brown • Concerns about the absence of blacks from managerial positions in sports • Athlete protests against police brutality • Thoughts on campaigns to bring down Confederate statues • Changing of the nation’s opinions on interracial marriage • Love for the Law School’s library service • Connection to Stanford baseball • His friend Dusty Baker helping with his confirmation to the NLRB • First time visiting South Africa • Unable to visit South Africa because his visa was denied • Decision to become an emeritus professor • Emeritus activities including work as a special advisor to the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration • Contentious confirmation process to NLRB • Senator Nancy Kassebaum’s efforts to demand batching of nominations • Changing nature of NLRB selection process; concept of interchangeable elites • Goal of expediting procedures at the NLRB, especially through settlement judges and rulemaking in lieu of litigation • Growing distance between labor and management and increasing polarization of Democratic and Republican parties • Senator Jim Talent placing rider on NLRB appropriations bill to block rule change related to determining unit scope in union elections • Friendship with Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon • Memories of Edward Kennedy • Accomplishments in providing postal ballots in union elections and use of Section 10(j) • His major disappointments as the chairman: the appropriations rider and the way that the politicized environment made board members reluctant to act • Final weeks at NLRB • His book Labored Relations and its reception, dedication, and epigraph • Praise for NLRB career employees working daily to solve labor issues in the United States • NLRB cases that were based on racially inflammatory conduct, including an organizing campaign triggered by a complaint of sexual harassment of a black woman against a white supervisor
Description
| Type of resource | moving image, sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
|---|---|
| Extent | 8 video files; 8 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | March 5, 2018 - 2018-03-06 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Gould, William B., IV | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Gould, William B., IV | |
| Interviewer | Marques, Nadejda | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Gould, William B., IV |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University. School of Law |
| Subject | United States. National Labor Relations Board |
| Subject | Labor laws and legislation |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | A prolific scholar of labor and discrimination law, William B. Gould IV has been an influential voice on worker-management relations for more than forty years and served as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (1994-98) and Chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (2014-2017). He is the Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus at Stanford Law School. Professor Gould has been a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1970 and has arbitrated and mediated more than three hundred labor disputes. As NLRB Chairman, he and his agency played a critical role in ending the longest strike in baseball history (1994-95) and he was a salary arbitrator in the 1992 and 1993 salary disputes between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee. Twice, he has served as an Expert Witness for the National Hockey League on issues relating to the extraterritorial application of American labor law and has served as a consultant to both the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The recipient of five honorary degrees, he is an author of ten books and more than sixty law review articles and his books include A Primer on American Labor Law (5th edition 2013); Labored Relations: Law, Politics and the NLRB-A Memoir (2000); Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor (2002); Bargaining with Baseball: Labor Relations in an Age of Prosperous Turmoil (2011). |
|---|---|
| Transcript |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/jd448nc2220 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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