Background
Royall, Kenneth Claiborne was born on July 24, 1894 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States. Son of George and Clara Howard (Jones) Royall.
Royall, Kenneth Claiborne was born on July 24, 1894 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States. Son of George and Clara Howard (Jones) Royall.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and Harvard Law School before serving in World War I. He then practiced law and was elected to the North Carolina Senate as a Democrat.
That position was abolished in 1947, and Royall served as the first Secretary of the Army (the successor position) from 1947 to 1949. At the beginning of World World War II, he became a colonel in the United States. Army. According to a 2006 newspaper column by Jack Betts, "When eight Nazis bent on mayhem came ashore on Long Island in 1942, they were soon caught and ordered to stand trial in a secret military tribunal.
He wanted the Nazis executed, the sooner the better.
Royall"s orders were to stay away from civilian courts. Royall wrote Roosevelt that he didn"t think the president had authority to convene a secret court to try his clients, and asked the president to change his order.
Roosevelt refused—whereupon Royall appealed to the United States. District Court, arguing the secret tribunal was unconstitutional. The court rejected that argument, so Royall and other lawyers in his office appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court rejected Royall"s argument in a brief announcement in July 1942, and upheld the right of the president to appoint a secret tribunal.
But Royall had succeeded in getting civilian court review of the tribunals" constitutionality despite the president"s preference to hush things up. The Supreme Court published a fuller opinion in October, saying, "Constitutional safeguards for the protection of all who are charged with offense are not to be disregarded." By then, six of Royall"s clients were dead. They were tried, convicted and executed in August 1942, days after the Supreme Court"s brief announcement upholding Roosevelt"s tribunals.
Two were sent to prison.
Royall later said he believed his defense of the Nazis was the most important work he did in a long and illustrious career. He was promoted to brigadier general.
Royall served as Undersecretary of War from November 9, 1945 until July 18, 1947. President Truman named him Secretary of War in 1947.
He became the first Secretary of the Army two months later.
Royall was forced into retirement in April 1949 for continuing to refuse to desegregate the Army, even nearly a year after President Truman promulgated Executive Order 9981. The firm was later renamed Rogers & Wells, and it was subsequently known as Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells after its merger with British firm Clifford Chance. Royall died in Durham, North Carolina, on May 25, 1971, at aged 76.
Royall was buried at the Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
President Roosevelt appointed Royall to defend them, but the president didn"t want any foolishness.
Served as Second lieutenant Field Artillery, 1917-1918, First lieutenant overseas, 1918-1919. Member Presidential Racial Committee, Birmingham, 1963. Member General Alumni Association of University of North Carolina (president 1959-1960), American, North Carolina (president 1929-1930), New York bar associations, American Law Institute, Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Kappa Epsilon (honorary national president 1948).
Clubs: Carolina Country (Raleigh, North Carolina).
Married Margaret Best, August 18, 1917. Children: Kenneth Claiborne, Junior.