More Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers

Name: More Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers
Author: Kent Spriggs
ISBN: 9780813080741

Continuing the Struggle

Edited by Kent Spriggs

Published by: University Press of Florida

In this book, twenty-three lawyers discuss their experiences in the struggle to advance and maintain civil rights in the United States South, from the 1960s to the 1980s and from Texas to Virginia to Florida.

300 Pages6.00 × 9.00notes, index

Paperback
9780813080741
Published: December 3, 2024

$35.00

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Hardcover
9780813079165
Published: December 3, 2024

$125.00

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EPUB
9780813073453
Published: December 3, 2024

(Ebook delivery via Leaf eReader app.)

$29.99

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PDF
9780813070841
Published: December 3, 2024

(Ebook delivery via Leaf eReader app.)

$200.00

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Description
Authors
Praise
Table of Contents

The legal struggle for civil rights throughout the Southeast and into the 1980s

In this book, twenty-three lawyers discuss their experiences in the struggle to advance and maintain civil rights in the United States South. While the lives of civil rights lawyers are often unknown or forgotten, this book draws attention to the importance of lawyers in facilitating dramatic sociopolitical changes, illustrates the realities of working in this profession, and shows the ways in which civil rights were—and still are—tested at every turn.

The events documented here happened not just in the 1960s and ‘70s but also in the 1980s, and this book highlights the emergence of a new generation of lawyers who continued to advocate for racial equity and expanded into other areas of social justice work, such as labor and gender. In addition, while the civil rights movement is commonly identified with protests in Deep South states, many of its activities and court challenges occurred beyond the region, and this book widens the geographic lens to include narratives from frontline lawyers in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Many of the struggles documented in these firsthand accounts provide the context for contemporary civil rights concerns, including voting rights. As gains from this historic period are being contested and even rolled back, these narratives help readers remember the ubiquity of injustices in that time and to recognize the systemic discrimination and racism that continue to undermine basic civil rights today.

Kent Spriggs, editor of Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections from the Deep South, 1964–1980, has been a civil rights lawyer for nearly six decades. He practices in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was a city commissioner and mayor.

“An inspiring book that brings to life a part of our national history and does so through voices everyone can relate to. The authors of these essays are ordinary people who have seized an opportunity to do extraordinary things.”—Armand Derfner, civil rights litigator
“This book helps us ask what we should do now that will have the same meaning and create the same legacy as fearless civil rights lawyers, activists, and leaders that came before us.”—John C. Brittain, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law

List of Abbreviations

Editor’s Note

Introduction
Kent Spriggs

Chapter 1. Law Students Civil Rights Research Council

The Law Students Civil Rights Research Council
Amy Ruth Tobol

A Transformative Internship with Attorney C. B. King
David Rudovsky

Clerking in Mobile
James Ayers

Panola County, Mississippi, in 1966
Stephen Oleskey

I Don’t Want to Die in Vietnam
Paul Harris

My Dad as a Role Model
Chevene King Jr.

My Memories of the Civil Rights Movement
Kenneth Cloke

Chapter 2. Southern Legal Action Movement