More Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers

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.