A conference Friday, Oct. 14, at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, honors and features 1954 graduate Fred D. Gray, one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers.
“In Honor of Fred Gray: Making Civil Rights Law from Rosa Parks to the Twenty-first Century” will offer a day-long examination of Gray’s extensive civil rights law achievements and the continuing implications of his work.
Gray, who has been practicing law full-time for more than six decades, will deliver the event’s Distinguished Lecture. He is senior partner in the firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray, Gray & Nathanson, with Alabama offices in Tuskegee and Montgomery.
Gray has represented Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the victims of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment. He played a major role in four landmark Supreme Court cases and has litigated significant cases involving desegregation, voting rights and other civil rights issues.
The conference will examine Gray’s work through the discussion of health law, voting rights, desegregation and the role of civil rights lawyers, while also analyzing present-day challenges.
Some of Gray’s other cases made possible the Selma-Montgomery march that resulted in the adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, led to the desegregation of public schools and universities throughout Alabama and made possible inclusion of African-Americans for juries.
Among his many honors, Gray has received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, the Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award from the Federal Bar Association, the Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion from Harvard Law School, the Centennial Medal from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and numerous honorary degrees.
The conference and lecture are in at CWRU Law Moot Courtroom (A59), 11075 East Blvd., Cleveland. A webcast and agenda is available at this link: