Fred Gray (attorney)

Fred Gray (born December 14, 1930) is a civil rights attorney and activist who practices law in Alabama [1]. He served as the President of the National Bar Association in 1985 and the first African-American President of the Alabama State Bar.

Gray was a lawyer in Alabama during the civil rights movement. He came to prominence working with Martin Luther King, Jr., E.D. Nixon, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 (Browder v. Gayle). Other notable cases include: Gomillion v. Lightfoot (redistricting of Tuskegee, ultimately affording political power to blacks in that city), Williams v. Wallace (protected Selma to Montgomery marchers), and Lee v. Macon (desegregation of all state public schools). He also represented plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Pollard v. U.S.).

Failed federal judicial nomination

On January 10, 1980, President Carter nominated Gray to be a judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, to fill a vacancy created by Judge Frank Minis Johnson's elevation to what then was the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Carter later withdrew Gray's nomination on September 17, 1980, in conjunction with the president instead nominating Myron Herbert Thompson to that seat.

Personal

Gray is a member of Omega Psi Phi and Sigma Pi Phi. Gray's religious affiliation is the Church of Christ.