Kent Spriggs - Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections from the Deep South, 1964–1980

VOICES OF CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERS

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers

Florida International University, Miami

Florida State University, Tallahassee

New College of Florida, Sarasota

University of Central Florida, Orlando

University of Florida, Gainesville

University of North Florida, Jacksonville

University of South Florida, Tampa

University of West Florida, Pensacola

VOICES OF CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERS

Reflections from the Deep South, 19641980

Edited by Kent Spriggs

Foreword by Marian Wright Edelman

University Press of Florida

Gainesville Tallahassee Tampa Boca Raton

Pensacola Orlando Miami Jacksonville Ft. Myers Sarasota

Fred Grays essays The Making of a Lawyer and Selma Once More: The 1965 Selma March are adapted from Bus Ride to Justice by Fred D. Gray (1995, 2013, NewSouth Books), reprinted with the permission of the publisher. For more information, see NewSouth Books at www.newsouthbooks.com.

Solomon Seays essay Solomon Seay Seeks Public Accommodation is adapted from Jim Crow and Me: Stories from My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer by Solomon S. Seay Jr. with Delores R. Boyd (2008, NewSouth Books), reprinted with permission of the publisher. For more information, see NewSouth Books at www.newsouthbooks.com.

Copyright 2017 by Kent Spriggs

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

22 21 20 19 18 17 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spriggs, Kent, editor of compilation. | Edelman, Marian Wright, author of foreword.

Title: Voices of civil rights lawyers : reflections from the deep South, 19641980 / edited by Kent Spriggs ; foreword by Marian Wright Edelman.

Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017005522 | ISBN 9780813054322 (cloth : acid-free paper)

Subjects: LCSH: African AmericansCivil rightsSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | Civil rights movementsSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | LawyersSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | African American lawyersSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | Civil rights workersSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | African American civil rights workersSouthern StatesHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC E185.615 .V63 2017 | DDC 323.1196/0730750904dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005522

The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.

Contents

Fred Gray

Barbara Phillips

Jack Drake

Laughlin McDonald

Larry Menefee

Armand Derfner

John C. Brittain

David Lipman

Mac Farmer

.

Kent Spriggs

Fred Gray

Larry Aschenbrenner

Larry Aschenbrenner and Armand Derfner

Reber Boult

Armand Derfner

Norman Siegel

Larry Aschenbrenner

Larry Aschenbrenner

Barbara Lipman

Jim Lewis

Dennis Roberts

Bill Ferguson

Kent Spriggs

Larry Aschenbrenner

Henry Aronson

Kent Spriggs

Elliott C. Lichtman

Armand Derfner

John C. Brittain

Armand Derfner

Mac Farmer

Kent Spriggs

.

Richard Sobol

Henry Aronson

David Lipman

Constance Slaughter-Harvey

Fred Banks

Richard Sobol

Mac Farmer

Armand Derfner

Larry Aschenbrenner

Larry Menefee

Jack Drake

Armand Derfner

Richard Sobol

Fred Banks

Laughlin McDonald

Larry Menefee

Larry Aschenbrenner

David Lipman

Solomon Seay

Don Marmaduke

Richard Tuttle

Richard Sobol

Larry Aschenbrenner

Henry Aronson

John Maxey

David Lipman

Fred Banks

Kent Spriggs

Richard Sobol

Kent Spriggs

Kent Spriggs

Jack Drake

David Lipman

Barbara Phillips

Mac Farmer

Barbara Phillips

Larry Menefee

Figures

.

.

Foreword

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

Im so grateful for this inspiring book and the stories captured heremost from old friendsabout a moment when practicing law helped change the world.

Law school never crossed my mind until my senior year at Spelman College when I was arrested for sitting in to desegregate Atlantas City Hall cafeteria and began volunteering at the Atlanta NAACP. After sorting requests for legal assistance from poor black citizens who sought to challenge racially discriminatory policies, cases white lawyers would not touch, I realized that going into the Foreign Service was misguided when the freedom and justice struggle was here at home. I entered Yale Law School in September 1960 thinking law was the best tool to fight racial discrimination.

I hated law school, but I had a mission and Mississippi on my mind. Many of my college friends with whom I had gathered at Ella Bakers urging and Dr. Kings invitation to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had gone to Mississippi and other southern states to begin the dangerous task of registering black voters. I couldnt figure out what corporations, property, and future courses had to do with civil rights struggles, so I traveled to Mississippi during spring break 1961 to remind myself why I was in New Haven studying law while SNCC friends were on the front lines in Greenwood. I found my answer. There were about 900,000 black citizens in Mississippis closed society and only four black lawyers. Only three took civil rights cases: R. Jess Brown, Carsie Hall, and Jack Young, who later took me under their wings and taught me how to survive. None had gone to a formal law school. Graduates of Ole Miss Law Schoolclosed to blackswere automatically admitted to the Mississippi Bar.

Medgar Evers, the local head of the NAACP, was the first welcoming face I saw at the Jackson airport where he picked me up. He took me home to have dinner with Myrlie and their children, and then drove me up to Greenwood in the Mississippi Delta where the SNCC headquarters was located about ninety miles away. Our first news on arrival was about a shooting that day that had terrorized the black community. After debriefing with my hosts, Medgar drove ninety miles at night back to Jackson.