Choice Outstanding Academic Title 
 
“Fascinating. . . . The kind of book you can open anywhere, maybe thumb back or forth a few pages, and settle into a good story.”—USA Today  
 
“Equal parts stunning, eye-opening, overwhelming, and, ultimately, very necessary to read and comprehend. Essential.”—Choice  
 
“An important reminder of the critical role attorneys played in the civil rights movement.”—Post and Courier  
 
“We owe much to the pioneering work of this generation of civil rights lawyers who translated their moral and political beliefs into representation of those most in need of legal services. . . . Kent Spriggs has given voice to those who helped secure some semblance of equal justice in that critical historical period.”—Civil Rights Litigation Handbook
 
“Capture[s] important reflections and memories about the legal struggle for civil rights in the South. Spriggs and his contributors offer significant firsthand accounts of the movement’s background, context, and strategy that provide a rich archive for scholars interested in civil rights, activist lawyering, and the South.”—Journal of Southern History
 
"One of the great, largely unknown stories of American history. This volume is a wonderfully evocative demonstration of something often discounted--how important law and lawyers were, and remain, in realizing the promise of full equality for all citizens."--Kenneth W. Mack, author of Representing the Race

"Filled with tales of ordinary people exhibiting extraordinary courage, Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers provides a penetrating and vital new perspective on one of the most turbulent and important periods in American history."--Lawrence Goldstone, author of Inherently Unequal

"Spriggs has performed a great service for future historians and for all of us by collecting the personal memories of lawyers who put their boots on the ground and their lives on the line in the Deep South during the tumultuous civil rights movement."--James Blacksher, civil rights attorney, Birmingham, Alabama

"The different voices are incredibly effective at both describing a harrowing series of events for the lawyers and allowing readers to hear how they interpreted those events in their own individual ways. A powerful work."--Thomas Aiello, author of Jim Crow's Last Stand


While bus boycotts, sit-ins, and other acts of civil disobedience were the engine of the civil rights movement, the law provided context for these events. Lawyers played a key role amid profound political and social upheavals, vindicating clients and together challenging white supremacy. Here, in their own voices, twenty-six lawyers reveal the abuses they endured and the barriers they broke as they fought for civil rights.



These eyewitness accounts provide unique windows into some of the most dramatic moments in civil rights history--the 1965 Selma March, the first civil judgment against the Ku Klux Klan, the creation of ballot access for African Americans in Alabama, and the 1968 Democratic Convention. The narratives depict attorney-client relationships extraordinary in their mutual trust and commitment to risk-taking. White and black, male and female, northern- and southern-born, these recruits in the battle for freedom helped shape a critical chapter of American history.
Kent Spriggs, author of the two-volume Representing Plaintiffs in Title VII Actions, has been a civil rights lawyer for fifty-two years. He practices in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was a city commissioner and mayor.
 
Contributors: Henry M. Aronson | Larry Aschenbrenner | Fred Banks | Reber Boult | John C. Brittain | Armand Derfner | Jack Drake | Malcolm (“Mac”) Farmer | William Ferguson | Fred D. Gray | Jim Lewis | Elliott Lichtman | Barbara Schechter Lipman | David Lipman | Don H. Marmaduke | John L. Maxey | Laughlin McDonald | Larry Menefee | Dennis Roberts | Solomon Seay | Norman Siegel | Constance "Connie" Slaughter-Harvey | Richard Sobol, Sebastopol | Richard H. Tuttle  
 

Sample Chapter(s):

Excerpt

Table of Contents

Awards
Choice Outstanding Academic Title - 2017

Fascinating. . . . The kind of book you can open anywhere, maybe thumb back or forth a few pages, and settle into a good story.
--USA Today

Equal parts stunning, eye-opening, overwhelming, and, ultimately, very necessary to read and comprehend. Essential.
--Choice

We owe much to the pioneering work of this generation of civil rights lawyers who translated their moral and political beliefs into representation of those most in need of legal services. . . . Kent Spriggs has given voice to those who helped secure some semblance of equal justice in that critical historical period.
--Civil Rights Litigation Handbook

Takes readers back to a time when Southern lawyers played one of the most important roles in the Civil Rights Movement.
--Jacksonville 904