Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908 – January 19, 1990) was an American politician and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. secretary of labor, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States ambassador to the United Nations.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Goldberg graduated from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1930. He became a prominent labor attorney and helped arrange the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, organizing European resistance to Nazi Germany. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as the secretary of labor. During Vietnam, he served in the Air Force Reserve.
In 1962, Kennedy successfully nominated Goldberg to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Felix Frankfurter. Goldberg aligned with the liberal bloc of justices and wrote the majority opinion in Escobedo v. Illinois. In 1965, Goldberg resigned from the bench to accept appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the ambassador to the United Nations. In that role, he helped draft UN Resolution 242 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. He ran for governor of New York in 1970 but was defeated by Nelson Rockefeller. After his defeat, he served as president of the American Jewish Committee and continued to practice law.
Goldberg was born on the West Side, Chicago, on August 8, 1908, the youngest of eight children of Rebecca Perlstein and Joseph Goldberg, Orthodox Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His paternal line derived from a shtetl called Zenkhov, in Ukraine, while his mother's family was from Tetiev. Goldberg's father, a produce peddler, died in 1916, forcing Goldberg's siblings to quit school and go to work to support the family. As the youngest child, Goldberg was allowed to continue school, but worked jobs on the side, including as a vendor at Wrigley Field and as a library clerk, to help support his family. He was childhood friends with future professional boxer Jackie Fields. Goldberg attended classes and lectures at the Hull House, which aimed to educate recent European immigrants. He graduated from Harrison Technical High School at the age of 16.
Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the noted murder trial in 1924 of Leopold and Loeb, two wealthy young Chicagoans who were spared the death penalty with the help of their high-powered defense attorney, Clarence Darrow. Goldberg attended the trial while he was a high school senior. Goldberg later pointed to the case as inspiration for his opposition to the death penalty on the bench, since he had seen how inequality of social status could lead to unfair application of the death penalty. Jewish Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo also served as inspiration to Goldberg from a young age.
Goldberg, who worked part time as a construction worker, took night courses at Crane Junior College of the City Colleges of Chicago and DePaul University. He later earned a B.S.L. (magna cum laude; 1929) and J.D. (1930) degrees from Northwestern University. Goldberg served as the Editor of the Illinois Law Review (now known as the Northwestern University Law Review) and helped Law Dean John Henry Wigmore write his third edition of the treatise on evidence. Goldberg graduated from Northwestern law school in just 2.5 years and with the highest academic record ever at Northwestern. Being just 21-years-old, he was too young to pass the Illinois Bar. However, he sued and successfully argued his own case to be admitted to the bar.
In 1931, Goldberg married Dorothy Kurgans. They had one daughter, Barbara Goldberg Cramer, and one son, Robert M. Goldberg (an attorney in Anchorage, Alaska). He was the uncle of prolific blues rock keyboardist Barry Goldberg.
During World War II, Goldberg joined the United States Army in 1942, wherein he served as a captain and later a major, and he served until the war ended in 1945. He wanted to join the Marines, but was not physically fit enough. Goldberg served as well in an espionage group operated by the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, serving as chief of the Labor Desk, an autonomous division of the American intelligence agency that was charged with the task of cultivating contacts and networks within the European underground labor movement during World War II. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency stated, "Goldberg's file notes that as both a civilian and a member of the Army, he supervised a section in the Secret Intelligence Branch of OSS to maintain contact with labor groups and organizations regarded as potential resistance elements in enemy-occupied and enemy countries. He organized anti-Nazi European transportation workers into an extensive intelligence network."
During the Vietnam War, Goldberg commissioned as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve but resigned in 1964 to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest after his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Goldberg was unable to work in Chicago's big law firms because they would not hire Jews. Instead, he started his legal career at Pritzger & Pritzger, a firm founded by German Jews. However, he was uncomfortable with his work at Pritzger because the work mainly dealt with representing large businesses.
Goldberg's interest in labor law spiked at the start of The Great Depression and in 1933 he left Pritzger to create his own boutique law firm, which was focused on labor law. Goldberg joined the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group that was advocating for The New Deal, in the mid-1930s. However, Goldberg, among others, resigned a few years later due to the NLG's growing association with the American Communist Party.
Goldberg became a prominent labor lawyer and represented striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1938. The strike went on for eight months and Goldberg spent almost everyday in court arguing on the worker's behalf. Eventually, the strike persuaded William Randolph Hearst to recognize the newspaper union. Appointed general counsel to the CIO in 1948 to succeed Lee Pressman, Goldberg served as a negotiator and chief legal adviser in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and CIO in 1955. AFL-CIO is one of the US major labor unions representing America's workers and labor. Goldberg also served as general counsel of the United Steelworkers of America.
Goldberg was an active participant in the National Citizens Political Action Committee and the CIO Political Action Committee. He supported the presidential campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Goldberg initially supported Senator Joseph McCarthy's efforts to investigate communism in the United States, but soon opposed those efforts after it became clear they threatened the organized labor movement.
In 1960, Goldberg wanted his friend Adlai Stevenson to run for president, but Stevenson encouraged Goldberg to back Hubert Humphrey. Instead, Goldberg backed Senator John F. Kennedy. Goldberg served as a labor advisor to Kennedy's campaign and was influential in getting unions to back Kennedy.
President John F. Kennedy nominated Goldberg to be United States secretary of labor, where he served from 1961 to 1962. He was the third Jew to be named to a Cabinet position. Goldberg wanted to be named Attorney General, so he would improve his chances of getting nominated to the Supreme Court, but that spot went to Kennedy's brother Robert. As Labor Secretary, Goldberg encouraged Kennedy to increase the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, create job opportunities for the youth and invest in economically distressed areas. Following Goldberg's advice, Kennedy established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO), which ensured employees are treated fairly regardless of "race, creed, color, or national origin." Goldberg also championed the creation of the President's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy.