WASHINGTON, D.C. — An oil portrait painted from life of Attorney Fred Gray, by artist Michael Shane Neal, has been acquired by The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. for its permanent collection.
The portrait was commissioned by “Friends of Fred Gray,” a group of donors who believed in the historical significance of a painting of Gray and its inclusion in the museum’s collection to educate future generations on his work for the Civil Rights Movement throughout his lifetime.
A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Gray is a nationally-recognized Civil Rights attorney, celebrated lecturer, successful author, minister, and former legislator. With a legal career that has spanned more than half a century, Gray’s landmark Civil Rights cases include representing Mrs. Rosa Parks who was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott and representing the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, successfully arguing the case at the United States Supreme Court.
Gray was also Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first Civil Rights attorney. President Joe Biden awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Gray during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on July 7, 2022.
Since beginning a full time career as an artist at the age of 21, Michael Shane Neal has completed more than 500 commissioned portraits on display around the world. His portraits include Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former President George H.W. Bush,
U.S. Senators Arlen Specter, Robert C. Byrd, and Bill Frist, presidential cabinet officials Robert Gates, Mike Pompeo, and Dirk Kempthorne, actor Morgan Freeman, U.S. governors, university presidents, ambassadors, business leaders, and Sir Malcom Colquhoun of Luss, Scotland. His portrait of Congressman John Lewis was also acquired by the Smithsonian Institute’s National Portrait Gallery for their permanent collection. Neal maintains studios in Nashville, Tennessee and New York City.
