Nathan Ross Margold


Nathan Ross Margold was a Romanian-born American lawyer. He was a municipal judge in Washington, D.C., and the author of the 1933 Margold Report to promote civil rights for African-Americans through the courts. He was also a supporter of Native American civil rights. In addition to his legal career, Margold is remembered as the father of adult film pioneer William Margold.

Early life

Nathan Ross Margold was born in Iași, Romania in 1899, to Wolf Margulies and Rosa Kahan. He was brought to the United States at age two. Growing up in Brooklyn, he graduated from City College of New York in 1919. Margold then attended Harvard Law School. He was a "protege" of Felix Frankfurter.

Career

Margold began his career by teaching the Law at his alma mater, the Harvard Law School. In 1933, Margold wrote the Margold Report, a "blueprint" for the NAACP to advance civil rights for African-Americans through the courts.
Margold worked as a lawyer in the United States Department of the Interior from 1933 to 1942, including as an aide to Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes. In 1940, he wrote the introduction to the Handbook of Federal Indian Law by Felix S. Cohen. Margold believed that Indian self-governance was "a revealing record in the development of our American constitutional democracy."
Margold was a member of the Modern Forum of the League for Peace and Democracy, an organization named as a "Communist front organization" by witnesses during a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1938.
Margold served as a judge on the municipal court of appeals for the District of Columbia from 1942 to 1947.

Death

Margold died on December 17, 1947 in Washington, D.C.