A patron saint of lost causes, Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) became known as "the Great Dissenter," one of the most visionary judges ever to reach the High Court. In such cases as Plessy v. Ferguson, Harlan broke with his peers to champion Black rights, long before the nation was ready. As Peter Canellos details in this "accessible and thoroughly researched" biography (NYTimes), Harlan owed his seat on the court to the efforts of Robert Harlan, a former slave who had been raised alongside him like a brother.