Julius L. Chambers

Julius Chambers, 2007

Julius LeVonne Chambers (born October 6, 1936 in Mount Gilead, North Carolina) is an American lawyer, civil rights leader, and educator.

Early Life

Julius Chambers grew up during the Jim Crow era in rural Montgomery County, North Carolina. As a child, Chambers saw first hand the effects of discrimination when his father's auto repair business became a target of racial injustice in 1948. A white customer refused to pay his father and his father could not afford a lawyer to file suit against the man. Chambers has said that this experience made him resolved to pursue a career in law - in order to help end segregation and racial discrimination. After graduating from high school in 1954 (the same month as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling), he enrolled at North Carolina Central University. He was the president of the student body at NCCU and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history in 1958. He then earned an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan. In 1959, Chambers entered law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the first African American editor-in-chief of the school's law review and graduated first in his class of 100 students in 1962. Chambers also became the first African American to gain membership in the Order of the Golden Fleece, the University's highest honorary society. In 1964, he went on to earn his LL.M. from Columbia University Law School. During this period, from 1963-1964, Chambers also served as the first intern for the newly-formed NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York, having been selected by the LDF's Director-Counsel Thurgood Marshall.

Law practice in Charlotte

In June 1964, Chambers began a solo law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina - a firm which eventually became the first integrated firm in North Carolina history. With fellow founding partners James E. Ferguson II and Adam Stein, along with lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the firm successfully litigated a number of key cases before the United States Supreme Court that would help to shape evolving American civil rights laws, including: the school busing decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971); and two important Title VII employment discrimination cases Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody (1975).

The firm's efforts were met several times with violence from white supremacists. While Chambers was at a speaking engagement in January 1965 in New Bern, North Carolina his car was destroyed by a bomb. On November 22, 1965, in the midst of the first hearings of the Swann school busing case, Chambers's home was bombed along with three other homes of African American leaders: then North Carolina NAACP President Kelly Alexander, his brother Frederick Alexander (a Charlotte city councilman) and community activist Reginald Hawkins. Amazingly, no one was injured in these bombings. The bombings received a great deal of national television and newspaper coverage, including an article in the New York Times. In February 1971, Chambers's downtown Charlotte law office was also firebombed.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

In 1984, he left the Charlotte firm to again join the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City, this time as its highest executive (Director-Counsel). Under Chambers’ leadership, the LDF litigated cases in the areas of education, voting rights, capital punishment, employment, housing and prisons. During this period, the LDF was perhaps best known for its work in defense of affirmative action programs of the 1970s and 1980s.

Career as Educator

Chambers has also had an active career as an educator. In 1993, he left New York (and his position with the LDF) to return to North Carolina in order to become the chancellor of his alma mater, North Carolina Central University. Under his administration, the University launched a $50 million capital fundraising campaign and established its first endowed chairs. He served as chancellor until June 30, 2001.

Chambers has also served as lecturer or adjunct professor at a number of law schools, including: Harvard University (1965), University of Virginia (1975-1978), University of Pennsylvania (1978-1986), Columbia University (1984-1992), and University of Michigan (1985-1992).

Publications

Chambers has authored or contributed to a number of important articles and books on civil rights law, including: “Beyond Affirmative Action” (1998), "Race and Equality: The Still Unfinished Business of the Warren Court,” The Warren Court: A Retrospective (1996), “Afterward: Racial Equity and Full Citizenship, The Unfinished Agenda,” African Americans and the Living Constitution (1996), “Black Americans and the Courts: Has the Clock Been Turned Back Permanently?,” The State of Black America (1990), and “Adequate Education for All: A Right, An Achievable Goal” (1987).

Personal Life

Chambers is married to Vivian Giles Chambers and has two adult children, Derrick and Judy, and two granddaughters. He is currently in private law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina with the multi-specialty law firm Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham & Sumter, P.A.