Legendary labor law scholar and longtime Stanford Law professor, emeritus, William B. Gould, IV, shares the story of his life in a presentation on his new book, Those Who Travail and Are Heavy Laden: Memoir of a Labor Lawyer.
In this sweeping narrative, Professor Gould starts with his East Coast childhood, his early encounters with racial boundaries, and the formative role the Episcopal Church played in his life. We follow the spark that led him to a career in labor and discrimination law, beginning with his work for the United Auto Workers in Detroit and from that pivotal start, consulting for the EEOC and more than a decade pursuing a landmark decree in the racial discrimination case Stamps v. Detroit Edison. In 1972, he became the first Black person to teach law at Stanford. Beyond his legal career, he will also share the story of his search for his great‑grandfather, William B. Gould, and the remarkable discovery of a long‑forgotten manuscript in a relative’s attic: Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor.
William B. Gould IV is Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Stanford Law School, a tenured member of its faculty since 1972. A prolific scholar of labor and discrimination law, Gould has been an influential voice in worker–management relations for more than fifty years, a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1970 and has served as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, 1994–98) and subsequently Chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (2014-2017). Shortly after the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Professor Gould served as a Consultant to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1966-67) providing recommendations on seniority disputes and conciliation procedures. Gould also authored the Report of San Francisco Independent Reviewer for Mayor London Breed in 2021. A critically acclaimed author of 12 books including, Black Workers in White Unions, and more than sixty law review articles, Professor Gould is the recipient of five honorary doctorates for his significant contributions to the fields of labor law and labor relations.