Congratulations to Dennis Archer, selected today to be the first African American President of the American Bar Association

Mr. Archer is a past Michigan Supreme Court justice and two-term mayor of Detroit. Here's a description of his background:

"Archer, a native of 1,500-resident Cassopolis, Mich., grew up in a home with no indoor plumbing and took weekly baths in a metal tub. His father had a third-grade education and couldn't find good work after he lost an arm in a car accident. Archer started working at age 8 with odd jobs like setting up bowling pins and caddying at a golf course."

Some interesting factoids: For the past 125 years, all of the ABA presidents have been white. There are 408,000 lawyer-members in the ABA. Until 60 years ago, blacks were banned from membership in the organization.

"While its ban on black members was in place, the ABA checked to make sure applicants were white. There was an effort to run out several black lawyers after they slipped through the application process in 1912."

The ban was lifted in 1943, but not until 1986 did the group begin seeking active recruitment of minorities.

The group acknowledges their horrid past. It offers no excuses, but there is plenty of tangible evidence the group has changed. Two incrediblyaccomplished and committed women, Roberta Cooper Ramos and Martha Barnett have been President in recent years. We are proud to know and have worked with both of them. And another African American lawyer, Robert Grey Jr. of Richmond, Va. , will follow Mr. Archer as President in 2004-2005.

We give high marks to the ABA this year--for its stands against the treatment of detainees and in support of civil liberties, for its criticism of the death penalty as applied in this country and for making the final break with its past by electing Mr. Archer President.

If we weren't already a member, we'd join today.