On Thursday
Joe Biden
will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
Fred Gray.
Mr. Gray had an excellent profession as a civil-rights chief. He represented
Rosa Parks
within the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott case and
Vivian Malone
and
James Hood
as they turned the primary black college students to enroll on the University of Alabama. Gov.
George Wallace
made his notorious “stand in the schoolhouse door” to forestall their entry.
Martin Luther King Jr.
as soon as described Mr. Gray as “the brilliant young Negro who later became the chief counsel for the protest movement.”
Perhaps nothing proves Mr. Gray’s extraordinary affect higher than his profitable four-year marketing campaign to desegregate all of Alabama’s faculty districts and public faculties.
On Jan. 28, 1963, solely two weeks after Wallace declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever,” Mr. Gray filed his historic lawsuit: Lee v. Macon County Board of Education. The lawsuit sought the desegregation of Macon County elementary and secondary colleges and was finally expanded to incorporate all Alabama public colleges.
The case resulted in an enormous discount in price for many black college students, who might now attend public school as day college students, thus obviating the necessity to pay for journey, room and board. In 1963, there have been 13 public four-year faculties in Alabama. They had been situated in such a sample that almost all of Alabama households lived inside commuting distance of a public school. But solely two of the universities had been open to black college students. A white pupil might attend school close to residence and pay solely tuition. Many black college students, nevertheless, except they lived close to one of many black faculties in Huntsville or Montgomery, needed to pay for room, board and journey, along with tuition. For black households with restricted monetary sources, school for his or her kids was not an choice.
Mr. Gray’s authorized actions had been the ultimate nail within the coffin of the charade of “separate but equal” education. In August 1963, seven months after Mr. Gray filed Lee v. Macon, a federal courtroom ordered the desegregation of Macon County colleges for the autumn time period. Wallace, decided to protect segregation, dispatched armed state troopers to encompass Tuskegee High School to forestall its integration when the varsity yr started.
Mr. Gray moved so as to add the governor and the Alabama Board of Education as defendants to the lawsuit, and the courtroom agreed. Mr. Gray then sought the desegregation of all state-supported instructional establishments. On March 22, 1967, after a four-year authorized battle, a three-judge panel ordered the desegregation of all of Alabama’s public instructional establishments, together with its faculties.
The inclusion of schools within the ultimate order made increased schooling accessible to hundreds of black college students in Alabama for the primary time. I personally benefited from Mr. Gray’s battle towards segregated colleges. In the summer season of 1963 I utilized for admission to Florence State College, now the University of North Alabama. The campus was close to my residence, however it was open to white college students solely. When my utility was rejected due to my race, Mr. Gray filed a lawsuit on my behalf. Under federal courtroom order, I entered Florence State in September 1963, graduating in May 1965 with a level in chemistry. I now function a board member of the varsity.
Many want a Fred Gray had come alongside sooner. But we’re grateful that he got here alongside when he did.
Mr. Gunn is a former vice chairman of Chase Bank. He served as a particular assistant on commerce coverage within the Reagan White House and was chief of employees to Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Jack Kemp.
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