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The article discusses the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer. It examines the case involving African American homeowners J.D. Shelley and Ethel Lee Shelley, the discriminatory real estate practice of racially restrictive covenants, and the role of the U.S. civil rights organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and St. Louis, Missouri, civil rights attorneys in the case. It also discusses the role of pastor and and realtor Robert Bishop in the case.

The article examines the career of Irving Brant as editorial page director and writer for the St. Louis Star and its successor in 1932, the Star-Times. Brant's career as a journalist occupied most of the first half of the twentieth century, during which time he sought to revive interest in the newspaper editorial page, from what he and others perceived as the public's growing preference for news and features. Brant found encouragement during the 1930s as Americans, in the wake of the Great Depression, turned to their newspaper for interpretation as well as news. His greatest influence occurred during the constitutional crisis of 1936–37, when he challenged the United States Supreme Court's decisions overturning major parts of the New Deal economic recovery program. In doing so, Brant harnessed the Star-Times’ editorial page in support of a new and robust liberal ideology of national authority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]