John Marshall Harlan - Death, Honors and Legacy

Death, Honors and Legacy

Harlan died on October 14, 1911, after 33 years with the Supreme Court, the third-longest tenure on the court up to that time (and the sixth-longest ever). He was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. where his body resides along with those of three other justices.

Harlan, who suffered from financial problems throughout his tenure on the Court, left minimal assets for the support of his widow, Malvina Shanklin Harlan, and two unmarried daughters. In the months following Harlan's death, leading members of the Supreme Court Bar established a fund for the benefit of the Harlan survivors.

There are collections of Harlan's papers at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, and at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. Both are open for research. Other papers are collected at many other libraries.

Named for Justice Harlan, the "Harlan Scholars" of the University of Louisville/Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, is an undergraduate organization for students interested in attending law school. Harlan is commemorated by John Marshall Harlan Community Academy High School a Chicago Public High School. Centre College, Harlan's alma mater, instituted the John Marshall Harlan Professorship in Government in 1994 in honor of Harlan's reputation as one of the Supreme Court's greatest justices. In 2009, with the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth coinciding with the election of the first black American president, Harlan's views on civil rights - far ahead of his time - were celebrated and remembered by many.