Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers, livre ebook

Choice Outstanding Academic Title

While bus boycotts, sit-ins, and other acts of civil disobedience were the engine of the civil rights movement, the law provided context for these events. Lawyers played a key role amid profound political and social upheavals, vindicating clients and together challenging white supremacy. Here, in their own voices, twenty-six lawyers reveal the abuses they endured and the barriers they broke as they fought for civil rights.

These eyewitness accounts provide unique windows into some of the most dramatic moments in civil rights history—the 1965 Selma March, the first civil judgment against the Ku Klux Klan, the creation of ballot access for African Americans in Alabama, and the 1968 Democratic Convention. The narratives depict attorney-client relationships extraordinary in their mutual trust and commitment to risk-taking. White and black, male and female, northern- and southern-born, these recruits in the battle for freedom helped shape a critical chapter of American history.

List of Figures

Foreword

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Editor’s Note

Introduction

PART 1. HOW CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERS EMERGED

1. Children of the South

The Making of a Lawyer
Fred Gray

How I Became a Civil Rights Lawyer
Barbara Phillips

From Gardendale, Alabama
Jack Drake

Growing Up in Winnsboro, South Carolina
Laughlin McDonald

Growing Up in Bama
Larry Menefee

2. Children of the North

Growing Up in the Shadow of the Holocaust
Armand Derfner

Growing Up on the Gold Coast
John C. Brittain

Race Consciousness
David Lipman

Why Did I Go?
Mac Farmer

Growing Up in Washington, D.C.
Kent Spriggs

PART 2. THE CONTEXT OF CIVIL RIGHTS LITIGATION

3. Big Events

Selma Once More: The 1965 Selma March
Fred Gray

The First Damages Judgment against the KKK
Larry Aschenbrenner

The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago: White Mississippi Delegation Barred
Larry Aschenbrenner and Armand Derfner

Senator McClellan Seeks to Prove SNCC Is Communist
Reber Boult

Miscegenation Comes to Mississippi
Armand Derfner

The Full Court Press for Voting Rights in Alabama
Norman Siegel

Mississippi Seeks to Ban the Civil Rights Lawyers
Larry Aschenbrenner

4. The Tenor of the Times

Mass Meetings, Demonstrations, and Boycotts
Larry Aschenbrenner

Being Married to a Civil Rights Lawyer
Barbara Lipman

From Civil Rights Worker to Civil Rights Lawyer
Jim Lewis

C. B. King, Iconic Civil Rights Lawyer
Dennis Roberts

Seeking Justice for a Blind Black Man in Front of Judge Cox
Bill Ferguson

“Summer Vacation” in Mississippi
Kent Spriggs

Get a Bullet in Your Car at the Law Library
Larry Aschenbrenner

The Politics of Civil Rights Lawyering
Henry Aronson

The Rev. C. K. Steele and Racism in Tallahassee
Kent Spriggs

Mississippi Notes
Elliott C. Lichtman

Opening Up the Closed Society
Armand Derfner

5. Arrests of Lawyers (and Other “Minor Indignities”)

Two Arrests While Practicing Law in Mississippi
John C. Brittain

Doing a Little Time in Holly Springs
Armand Derfner

Elements of Procedure I Missed at Harvard Law School
Mac Farmer

Two Arrests, a Beating, and a Moment of Weakness
Kent Spriggs

Arrested by Leander Perez Sr.
Richard Sobol

Getting Punched by Sheriff Clark and Other Misadventures
Henry Aronson

Get a Rifle Barrel in the Mouth for Monitoring an Election in Belzoni
David Lipman

A Very Bad Morning in Rankin County
Constance Slaughter-Harvey

6. Modes of Law Practice

538 ½: The Legal Defense Fund Office in Mississippi
Fred Banks

Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee in Louisiana
Richard Sobol

Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee in Mississippi
Mac Farmer

It Changed My Life: Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee in Mississippi
Armand Derfner

The Formation of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Larry Aschenbrenner

Private Practice in Alabama
Larry Menefee

Nonprofit and Private Practice in Alabama
Jack Drake

PART 3. BASIC LEGAL RIGHTS

7. Access to Justice

The Friendly Judicial Climate
Armand Derfner

8. Voting Rights and Political Representation

Voting Shenanigans in Madison Parish
Richard Sobol

Civil Rights Lawyers Emerge into Politics
Fred Banks

Voting Rights in Edgefield County
Laughlin McDonald

Challenging At-Large Elections
Larry Menefee

Mississippi Pushes Back against the Voting Rights Act
Larry Aschenbrenner

Voting in Leflore County
David Lipman

9. Public Accommodations

Solomon Seay Seeks Public Accommodation
Solomon Seay

Desegregating the Neshoba County Courthouse
Don Marmaduke

Integrating the Fox Theater
Richard Tuttle

Trying to Get Service at Bill’s Highway 80 24-Hour Truck Stop
Richard Sobol

Integrating the Admiral Benbow Inn Swimming Pool
Larry Aschenbrenner

Desegregating the Parliament House Hotel
Henry Aronson

10. School Desegregation and Municipal Equalization

Ulysses S. Grant’s Legacy
John Maxey

School Desegregation and Municipal Equalization
David Lipman

The Legal Defense Fund’s Massive Effort
Fred Banks

Desegregating Schools in Northern Mississippi
Kent Spriggs

11. Employment Discrimination

Crown Zellerbach Becomes the Standard
Richard Sobol

The Perfectly Segregated Plant in the Perfectly Segregated Town
Kent Spriggs

Monsanto: Fair Employment Comes to a Megaplant
Kent Spriggs

PART 4. HOW THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND LITIGATIONADVANCED OTHER MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

12. Constitutional Race-Based Litigation and the Friendly Judicial Climate Lead to Other Areas of Constitutional Litigation

The Constitution Comes to the State Residential Hospitals
Jack Drake

The Rule of Law Comes to Infamous Parchman Prison
David Lipman

13. How the Civil Rights Movement and Litigation Informed Other Movements for Social Justice

The Legacy of Other Social Justice Movements
Barbara Phillips

Civil Rights in Mississippi Informs LGBT Concerns
Mac Farmer

14. Framing the Contemporary Dialogue of Race

The Trojan Horse Called “Diversity”
Barbara Phillips

White Supremacy Lives
Larry Menefee

Conclusion

About the Editor

List of Contributors

Index