More Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers
Continuing the Struggle
The legal struggle for civil rights throughout the Southeast and into the 1980s
In this book, twenty-three lawyers discuss their experiences in the struggle to advance and maintain civil rights in the United States South. While the lives of civil rights lawyers are often unknown or forgotten, this book draws attention to the importance of lawyers in facilitating dramatic sociopolitical changes, illustrates the realities of working in this profession, and shows the ways in which civil rights were—and still are—tested at every turn.
The events documented here happened not just in the 1960s and ’70s but also in the 1980s, and this book highlights the emergence of a new generation of lawyers who continued to advocate for racial equity and expanded into other areas of social justice work, such as labor and gender. In addition, while the civil rights movement is commonly identified with protests in Deep South states, many of its activities and court challenges occurred beyond the region, and this book widens the geographic lens to include narratives from frontline lawyers in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Many of the struggles documented in these firsthand accounts provide the context for contemporary civil rights concerns, including voting rights. As gains from this historic period are being contested and even rolled back, these narratives help readers remember the ubiquity of injustices in that time and to recognize the systemic discrimination and racism that continue to undermine basic civil rights today.
Contributors: Robert L. Wiggins Jr. | James Blacksher | Alan Levine | Melvyn R. Leventhal | David Rudovsky | James Ayers | Chevene King Jr. | John Gresham | David Kern | Jack Drake | Stephen Oleskey | Kent Hull | Kent Spriggs | Charles Stephen Ralston | Barbara Phillips | Jim Rowan | Michael B. Trister | Bruce Rogow | Wilhelm H. Joseph | Kenneth Cloke | Gerry Hebert | Paul Harris | Martha Bergmark | Amy Ruth Tobol
“An inspiring book that brings to life a part of our national history and does so through voices everyone can relate to. The authors of these essays are ordinary people who have seized an opportunity to do extraordinary things.”—Armand Derfner, civil rights litigator
“This book helps us ask what we should do now that will have the same meaning and create the same legacy as fearless civil rights lawyers, activists, and leaders that came before us.”—John C. Brittain, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law
Kent Spriggs, editor of Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections from the Deep South, 1964–1980, has been a civil rights lawyer for nearly six decades. He practices in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was a city commissioner and mayor.
