Bus Ride To Justice: Changing the System by the System

Book by Gray, Fred D.

This straightforward autobiography by an unsung hero of the civil rights movement is a valuable firsthand chronicle, an instructive legal casebook and a stirring personal story. In 1955, at age 24, this Montgomery, Ala., lawyer represented Rosa Parks when she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her stance triggered the Montgomery bus protest, of which Gray was a chief architect. He subsequently undertook litigation to integrate schools, extend voter registation to African Americans and end discrimination in housing and jury selection. Gray represented participants in the 1965 Selma March, cleared Martin Luther King Jr. of income tax-evasion charges and won compensation for participants in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972), in which black males were denied medical treatment in an inhumane experiment to observe the effects of untreated syphilis. He also discusses his calling as a minister and his term (1970-1974) in the segregated Alabama Legislature. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.