The highest civilian honor has been bestowed upon Montgomery native Fred Gray, as the legendary civil rights attorney received the Presidential Medal of Freedom during an official ceremony at the White House on Thursday.
Gray’s storied legal career includes representing famed Alabama civil rights icons Rosa Parks, former U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient was once described by King as “the chief counsel for the protest movement.”
Born in the “Cradle of the Confederacy,” Gray attended then-Loveless School until later transferring to boarding school at the Nashville Christian Institute. Following graduation from high school, Gray went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the Alabama State College for Negroes, now known as Alabama State University.
Upon completing his undergraduate studies, Gray earned a juris doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Ohio. He could not attend law school in Alabama as no university in the state would consider black applicants.
He went on to become an ordained Church of Christ minister. In his capacity as a preacher, Gray actively desegregated white and black congregations in Tuskegee, where he lived at the time.
Alongside serving as counsel for civil rights leaders, he successfully litigated cases involving First Amendment rights, public school desegregation, among other issues.
In 1970, Gray became one of the first black lawmakers elected to the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction.
During Thursday’s award ceremony, President Joe Biden proclaimed that Gray’s life work had “touched the soul of our nation.”
“One of the most important civil rights lawyers in our history, Fred’s legal brilliance and strategy desegregated schools and secured the right to vote,” noted the president. “He went on to be one of the first elected African Americans to the Alabama State Legislature since Reconstruction. An ordained minister, he imbued a righteous calling that touched the soul of our nation. And at 91-years young, he’s still practicing law. And he’s still keeping faith in the best of America.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
