Story of First Black Lawyers in Montgomery, How They Paved the Way
Some of the first Black lawyers in Alabama date back to the 1860s and 1870s. They were faced with hate crimes, killings, and much more due to the profession they chose.
By 1930, there were only four black lawyers in the entire state. Though that year, a young boy was born and would later change that narrative. Attorney Fred D. Gray.
Gray went on to represent civil rights leader, Rosa Parks, after her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. That situation would begin the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Gray would take on many other nationally recognized cases.
John Browning, law professor at Faulkner University, shares his research on the first Black lawyers in the state and the struggles they faced.
