“I went into law to destroy everything segregated I could find. I got involved in the Gomillion v. Lightfoot case because people in Macon County, AL had been trying to get the right to vote since the early forties. Unlike most Black Belt counties, Tuskegee had two institutions with highly educated people involved. One was a Veterans Administration hospital that came into being as a result of the federal government not providing a place for Black veterans after World War I. And then there was  Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, with highly educated people who couldn’t get the right to vote. The state senator from Macon County had a local bill passed that changed the city limits of the city of Tuskegee from a square into what I called a ‘sea dragon’ of about 28 sides. I was retained to represent the Tuskegee Civic Association and to try to get this law declared unconstitutional. Nobody thought I could do it. In many respects, Gomillion v.. Lightfoot is the most important civil rights case that I have had the privilege of handling. It was my brainchild and the one that I thought we could win despite overwhelming odds. This case had several implications: it was the first case involving racial gerrymandering that the high court had ever considered; this case also laid the foundation for the concept of one man, one vote. The fact that white authorities could no longer delete the African American vote set the stage for later cases to hold that African-Americans must be properly represented. 

My work continues with the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. The museum has a brief history of the Civil Rights movement from slavery to the present time. It also shows the history of European Americans and Native Maericans and is also a memorial for the men in the Tuskegee Symphony study. We are adding the Fred Gray Institute for Civil and Human Rights. We are looking for partners willing to make an annual contribution to the Center and Institute so we can continue to do away with racial inequality. 

I’ve been practicing law for 70 years and I’m glad I’ve been instrumental in the gains for equal rights and voting rights. But the struggle for equal justice continues.

Fred Gray

Mr. Gray was the attorney for Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King and handled many civil rights cases. His lawsuits helped desegregate many local school systems, public colleges, and universities in Alabama. He was also one of the first Black state legislators elected in Alabama in the 20th century. In 2022, Mr. Gray was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

*The Tuskegee boundaries were redrawn in 1957. Gomillion v. Lightfoot went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1960. The court unanimously held that the Alabama legislature violated the Fifteenth Amendment.  The case helped set the stage for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.