Fred Gray

Fred Gray is an attorney in Montgomery and Tuskegee, AL. He holds degrees from Nashville Christian Institute, Alabama State University, and Case Western Reserve University. He has done a great deal of civil rights work over the course of his career. Gray served as a member of the Alabama State Legislature in the 1970s, and has served as the president of the National Bar Association and the Alabama Bar Association. He is also the author of two books, Bus Ride to Justice and The Tuskegee Syphilis Study. In 2004, Gray received the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall award.

Civil Rights Era

Fred Gray was the principal lawyer involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He represented Collete Colvin, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other participants in the boycott. He also created the litigation strategy for the boycott, which ended in a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that bus segregation in Montgomery was unconstitutional.

Bibliography

Information for this biography was gathered from the following sources:

http://www.fredgray.net/index.html
http://www.abanet.org/irr/tmaward/2004award/fredgray.html
Pre-interview with Fred Gray conducted by Blackside, Inc. for Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965). Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection.

Return to Eyes on the Prize I Interview Index