Fred Gray (attorney): Difference between revisions

| name = Fred Gray

| image = Fred Gray, Civil Rights attorney.png

| caption = Gray speaking at [[Emporia State University]] on September 15, 2016

| office = Member of the [[Alabama House of Representatives]]

| term_start = 1971

| term_end = 2015

| office2 =

| term_start2 =

| term_end2 =

| term_start3 =

| term_end3 =

| state_senate2 =

| term2 =

| district2 =

| birth_name = Fred David Gray

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1930|12|14}}

| birth_place = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party =

| occupation = Lawyer

| spouse = {{marriage|Bernice Hill (m. 1956)|1955}}

| children = 4

| relations =

| residence =

| religion =

| alma_mater = [[Alabama State College]] ([[Bachelor's degree|BA]])<br>[[Case Western Reserve University]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]])

'''Fred David Gray''' (born December 14, 1930) is aan American civil rights attorney, preacher and, activist, whoand practicesstate lawlegislator infrom [[Alabama]]. He litigatedhandled severalmany majorprominent civil rights cases, such as ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'', and was elected to the [[Alabama House of Representatives]] in 1970, along with [[Thomas Reed (Alabama politician)|Thomas Reed]], includingboth somefrom thatTuskegee. They reachedwere the Unitedfirst Statesblack Supremestate Courtlegislators forin rulingsAlabama in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3q0CgAAQBAJ&dq=thomas+reed+tuskegee&pg=PA474 | title=Tuskegee's Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study | isbn=9781469608723 | last1=Reverby | first1=Susan M. | date=December 2012 | publisher=UNC Press Books }}</ref> He served as the Presidentpresident of the [[National Bar Association]] in 1985, and in 2001 was elected as the first African-American President of the [[Alabama State Bar]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Honoring Fred Gray|url=https://www.alabar.org/assets/uploads/2014/09/Addendum-February-2015.pdf|website=Addendum|publisher=Alabama State Bar|access-date=30 July 2017|date=February 2015}}</ref>

Born in [[Montgomery, Alabama]], Gray attended the Loveless School, where his aunt taught, until the seventh grade. He attended the [[Nashville Christian Institute]] (NCI), a boarding school operated by the [[Churches of Christ]], where he assisted NCI president and noted preacher [[Marshall Keeble]] in visiting other churches of the racially diverse nondenominational fellowship. After graduation, Gray matriculated at [[Alabama State University|Alabama State College for Negroes]], and received a [[Bachelor's degree|baccalaureate degree]] in 1951.<ref name="eoa">{{cite web|last1=Key|first1=Barclay|title=Fred Gray|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1510|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=30 July 2017|date=15 April 2008}}</ref> Encouraged by a teacher to apply to law school despite his earlier plans to become aan historian and preacher, Gray moved to [[Cleveland, Ohio]], and received a ''[[juris doctor]]'' degree from [[Case Western Reserve University School of Law]] in 1954.<ref name="eoa"/> At the time there was no law school in Alabama that would accept African Americans.

Other notable civil rights cases brought and argued by Gray included ''[[Dixon v. Alabama]]'' (1961, which established due process rights for students at public universities), ''[[Gomillion v. Lightfoot]]'' (1962, which overturned state redistricting of Tuskegee that excluded most of the majority-black residents; this contributed to laying a foundation for "one man, one vote") and ''[[Williams v. Wallace]]'' (1963, which protected the [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to Montgomery]] marchers). In another [[U.S. Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] case, Gray was driven in his efforts to have the [[NAACP]] organize in Alabama after the group was forbidden in the state.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.biography.com/people/fred-gray-21308983 |title=Biography of Fred Gray |website=[[Biography.com]] |access-date=May 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901064656/https://www.biography.com/people/fred-gray-21308983 |archive-date=September 1, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>[[File:Fred Gray and Terri Sewell.jpg|thumb|Fred Gray at an exhibition opening about Rosa Parks at the Library of Congress with [[Terri Sewell]] in 2019.]]Alabama resisted integration of public schools following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) that ruled segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Gray successfully represented [[Vivian Malone Jones|Vivian Malone]] and [[James Hood]], who had been denied admission to the [[University of Alabama]], and they entered the university despite Governor [[George Wallace]]'s [[Stand in the Schoolhouse Door]] incident. In 1963 Gray successfully sued [[Florence State University]] (now [[University of North Alabama]]) on behalf of [[Wendell Wilkie Gunn]], who had been denied admission based on race. Gray also led the successful effort to desegregate [[Auburn University]]. In 1963 Gray filed the ''[[Lee v. Macon County Board of Education]]'' case, which in 1967 led a three-judge panel of U.S. District Judges to order all Alabama public schools not already subject to court orders to desegregate. Lawsuits filed by Gray helped desegregate more than 100 local school systems, as well as all public colleges and universities in his home state.<ref name="eoa" />

''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' was a court case heard before a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Montgomery and Alabama state bus segregation laws. The panel consisted of Middle District of Alabama Judge [[Frank Minis Johnson]], Northern District of Alabama Judge [[Seybourn Harris Lynne]], and the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge [[Richard Rives]]. On June 5, 1956, the District Court Ruled 2–1, with Lynne dissenting, that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] to the U.S. Constitution.

Gray later did research for the lawsuit and consulted with NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys [[Robert L. Carter]] and [[Thurgood Marshall]] (who would late become United States Solicitor General and the first African-American United States Supreme Court Justice). Gray later approached Claudette Colvin, [[Aurelia Browder]], [[Susie McDonald]], [[Mary Louise Smith (activist)]], and [[Jeanetta Reese]], all women who had been discriminated against by the drivers enforcing segregation policy in the Montgomery bus system. They all agreed to become plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit (except Jeanetta Reese due to intimidation by the members of the white community), thus by passingbypassing the Alabama court system. Jeanetta Reese later falsely claimed she did not agree to the lawsuit which made the lawsuit an unsuccessful attempt to disbar Gray for supposedly improperly representing her.{{cn|date=November 2020}}

Gray married the former Bernice Hill, his secretary, in 1955, and they had four children.<ref name="eoa"/> He published his autobiography thein same year1995, ''Bus Ride to Justice: The Life and Works of Fred Gray''.{{cn|date=May 2021}} He is also a member of [[Omega Psi Phi]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bishop|first1=Quinest|title=Historical Marker unveiling honoring Civil Rights Attorney Bro. Fred Gray|url=http://www.oppf.org/news/view.asp?ID=158|website=Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.|access-date=30 July 2017|date=1 February 2015|archive-date=6 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206070032/http://oppf.org/News/view.asp?ID=158|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Sigma Pi Phi]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Sarasota Community Says Thanks to Archon Fred David Gray|url=https://www.sigmapiphi.org/boules/gamma-xi/2012/04/05/news-releases-2/|website=Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-date=31 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731035604/https://www.sigmapiphi.org/boules/gamma-xi/2012/04/05/news-releases-2/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1980, the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] awarded Gray its Drum Major Award. In 1996, the [[American Bar Association]] awarded Gray its Spirit of Excellence Award (having awarded him its Equal Justice Award in 1977). The National Bar Association awarded him its C. Frances Stradford Award. In 2002, Gray became the first African-American president of the [[Alabama Bar Association]]. In 2006, the [[NAACP]] recognized Gray's accomplishments with the [[William Robert Ming Advocacy Award]], citing the spirit of financial and personal sacrifice displayed in his legal work.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfvnaacp.org/archives/Memorandum/William%20Robert%20Ming%20Advocacy%20Award.pdf |title=Memorandum to NAACP Units and State Conferences |author=Benjamin Todd Jealous |date=January 2012 |access-date=March 3, 2016 |publisher=NAACP |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215723/http://www.sfvnaacp.org/archives/Memorandum/William%20Robert%20Ming%20Advocacy%20Award.pdf |archive-date=March 3, 2016 }}</ref> In 1980 Fred Gray received the Drum Major Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He also won the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association (1996).

Gray was depictedportrayed by London Carlisle in the 2016 stage play ''[[The Integration of Tuskegee High School]]''. The production premiered at [[Auburn University]], was written and directed by Tessa Carr, and dramatizes Gray's involvement in the case of ''Lee v. Macon County Board of Education''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ocm.auburn.edu/newsroom/news_articles/2016/04/the-integration-of-tuskegee-high-school-lee-v.-macon-county-board-of-education-opens-april-14-at-auburn-university.htm |title='The Integration of Tuskegee High School: Lee v. Macon County Board of Education' opens April 14 at Auburn University |author=Dyleski, Taylor |date=April 2016 |access-date=2013-05-23 |publisher=Auburn University }}</ref>

*{{commons -inline|Fred Gray}}

[[Category:20th-century African-American lawyers]]