Fred D. Gray Receives 2004 ABA Thurgood Marshall Award

The American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities awarded veteran civil rights lawyer Fred D. Gray of Tuskegee, Ala., with the 2004 Thurgood Marshall Award at the 2004 ABA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

"We are privileged to honor Fred Gray on the fiftieth anniversary not just of Brown v. Board of Education, but also on the fiftieth anniversary of his admission to the practice of law," said Section Chair Joan F. Kessler. "From the start of his legal career, Fred Gray has carried on the proud tradition of Thurgood Marshall. It is fitting that he receive the Thurgood Marshall Award to recognize those fifty years of remarkable dedication and effective use of the legal system to eliminate racial discriminations."

"Fred Gray's contributions to the advancement of civil rights in this country exemplifies the spirit of the Thurgood Marshall Award," said Georgina C. Verdugo, Chair of the Thurgood Marshall Award Committee. "We are particularly delighted to honor him during a year that marks the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education."

With a legal career that has spanned over 45 years, Gray is perhaps best known for representing Rosa Parks after she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala. in 1955, and for serving as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first civil rights attorney. He also was involved in the landmark Tuskegee Syphilis Study case and in many other cases that have changed the social fabric of America regarding desegregation, integration, racial discrimination in voting, housing, and education.

Gray is currently a senior partner in the law firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray & Nathanson, with offices in Montgomery and Tuskegee, Alabama.

In addition to representing Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gray was involved in numerous other civil rights cases. He was victorious in cases that integrated buses in the city of Montgomery in 1956, returned African-Americans to the city limits of the city of Tuskegee in 1960, and in 1966 won a class action to remedy systematic exclusion of blacks from jury service. Also, in 1993 he successfully argued in the Eleventh Circuit that there are still vestiges of racial discrimination in higher education in Alabama.

He has also served as President of the National Bar Association in 1985-86, became a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1999, and he was selected for a three-year term as a member of the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents in 2003. He also became the first person of color elected as President of the Alabama State Bar Association in 2002-03.

Gray previously has been recognized by the American Bar Association, being awarded the "Spirit of Excellence Award" in 1996, celebrating the achievements of lawyers of color and their contributions to the legal profession.

A graduate of the Nashville Christian Institute, Alabama State University, and Case Western Reserve University, Gray has also lectured on the local, state, and national levels. He was Practitioner-In-Residence at Pepperdine University, lecturer at Case Western Reserve University, School of Law, guest lecturer for the Harvard Law Forum Speaker Series, and in December 2000 was appointed to the Charles Hamilton Houston Chair in Law at The North Carolina Central University School of Law.

Established in 1992, the Thurgood Marshall Award recognizes long-term contributions to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States.

Other ABA Thurgood Marshall Award recipients have included Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights (1996); Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U. S. Supreme Court Justice (1999); and Hon. Don Edwards, retired Congressman (2002).

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