MONTGOMERY, AL — Legendary attorney Fred D. Gray recounted his involvement in demonstrations and legal battles that blossomed into the Civil Rights Movement, then issued a passionate plea to rejuvenate that work in response to injustices persisting or emerging today. “Seventy years ago, right here in Montgomery, Alabama, the first Civil Rights Movement began. … What we have done these past two days could be the beginning of the Second Civil Rights Movement,” Gray said to thunderous applause Saturday night in Montgomery.
Gray’s “Final Exhortation” capped the inaugural national symposium of the newly established Fred D. Gray Institute for Human and Civil Rights. Attended by more than 200 participants representing more than 20 states, the symposium featured an impressive lineup of speakers and panelists exploring topics such as medical racism, voting rights, gerrymandering, human and civil rights, and equal access to quality education for all.
“Today, right here in Montgomery, Alabama, where it all started, some of the greatest thinkers and practitioners in the law and health and healthcare and education have gathered alongside communities from all over this country,” Gray said, “and we all realize we are facing problems … and want to continue that work that was started 70 years ago. We have come to Montgomery to identify these great injustices and these great problems.”
Dubbed the “chief counsel” of the Civil Rights Movement by Martin Luther King Jr., Gray represented figures such as Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and Dr. King himself over a seven-decade law career.
“From the stage to the audience, the symposium was marked by a high degree of thoughtfulness and passion,” said Dwight Lewis, a retired journalist of 40 years at The Tennessean in Nashville. “We were united in our commitment to carry forward the legacy of Attorney Gray, to apply it to the current moment, and to inspire a new generation of justice-seekers.”
During his keynote address at a welcome dinner Friday evening, Equal Justice Initiative Founder and Executive Director Bryan Stevenson lamented that “the politics of fear and anger are raging,” warned that “injustice prevails where hopelessness exists,” and challenged the audience to follow Gray’s example by “getting proximate” to people who are suffering or excluded. “You should get proximate not just to help someone else; you should get proximate to help yourself,” Stevenson said. “Otherwise, you don’t hear the things you need to hear to bring about change.”
To learn more about the Fred Gray Institute and its inaugural national symposium, visit fredgrayinstitute.org.
ABOUT FRED GRAY
Attorney Fred D. Gray’s 70-year legal career epitomizes the fight for equal justice. With humility, tenacity and grace, Gray waged a relentless pursuit to dismantle segregation. A 1954 graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Gray’s many accolades include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award, the Federal Bar Association’s Sarah T. Hughes Award, Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Freedom and numerous honorary degrees. Gray served as president of the National Bar Association, was the first black president of the Alabama Bar Association and was one of the first two African Americans elected to the Alabama legislature since Reconstruction.
