12/14/2024
Fred Gray - December 14, 1930
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Enthusiastic, energetic, and out of law school for less than a year, he began a dynamic civil rights career in 1954. His first civil rights case was a representation of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African American high school student who refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1955. In December 1955 he represented Mrs. Rosa Parks who was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, City of Montgomery v. Rosa Parks. He was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first civil rights attorney.
The list of civil rights cases that Mr. Gray won can be found in most constitutional law textbooks. Among them are included:
Browder v. Gayle, which integrated the buses in the City of Montgomery in 1956.
Gomillion v. Lightfoot decided in 1960, returned African-Americans to the city limits of the City of Tuskegee. A landmark case, it opened the door for redistricting and reapportioning various legislative bodies across the nation laying the foundation for the concept, "one man one vote".
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama, ex rel. John Patterson, Attorney General, was brought by the State of Alabama in which it outlawed the NAACP from doing business in the State of Alabama. This case was taken to the Supreme Court, three times through the state court system, and twice through the federal court system. The ultimate result was the NAACP was able to resume its business operations in the State of Alabama.
Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, decided in 1961, reinstated students who were expelled from Alabama State College and held that the students were unconstitutionally expelled, and students attending a state supported institution are entitled to a hearing before expulsion. The legal principle announced in this case has been extended to many other areas.
Williams v. Wallace, decided in 1965, was a class action suit brought by African Americans against Governor Wallace and the State of Alabama and resulted in the court ordering Governor Wallace and the State of Alabama to protect marchers as they walked from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to present grievances as a result of being unable to vote. The publicity of these actions led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Mitchell v. Johnson, decided in 1966, was one of the first civil actions brought to remedy systematic exclusion of blacks from jury service.
Gray has lectured on local, state, national and international levels. He was Practitioner-In-Residence at Pepperdine University; lecturer at Case Western Reserve University, School of Law; Tenneco Distinguished Speaker, University of Houston; guest lecturer for the Harvard Law Forum Speaker Series, Harvard Law School, and facilitator for the Federal Executive Institute, Charlottesville, Virginia, and University of Hull, United Kingdom. In 2000, Gray was appointed to the Charles Hamilton Houston Chair in Law at The North Carolina Central University School of Law.
One of the first African Americans to serve in the Alabama Legislature since reconstruction, he served from 1970-1974. He received the Capitol Press Corps Award for Best Orator in the House of Representatives in 1972 and was a member of the National Society of State Legislators from 1970-1974. His love and commitment in promoting the works of the National Bar Association gave him recognition as its 43rd President, 1985-86. He initiated the NBA Hall of Fame (becoming an inductee in August of 1995), and was the recipient of the Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit from the Washington Bar Association.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Miller Brewing Company selected him to appear in its 1989 calendar, Gallery of Greats, Black Attorneys: Counsels For The Cause. He was further recognized by Miller Brewing Company as the representative of all lawyers in the 1993 tenth edition, "Excellence Has Many Faces". Miller has again recognized Mr. Gray in its 2000 Gallery of Greats Calendar, Pillars of the Past: Architects of the Future, as one of the three Black Attorneys: Counsels for the Cause. He has received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Alabama State University, Southwestern Christian College, Case Western Reserve University, Pepperdine University, Abilene Christian University, Jones School of Law of Faulkner University, Santa Clara University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, Oklahoma Christian University (through Cascade College); The honorary Degree of Humane Letters from Huntingdon College, Lipscomb University and Morgan State University.
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