Alabama HR 124: Fred D. Gray, commended

Bill Text

HR124 INTRODUCED
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HR124
7BBMXVV-1
By Representative Warren
RFD:
First Read: 06-Mar-25
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7BBMXVV-1 03/05/2025 NG (L)NG 2025-1154
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First Read: 06-Mar-25
HR___ COMMENDING PIONEER CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY, FRED D.
GRAY, FOR PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
WHEREAS, with great pride and special pleasure,
highest commendations are conveyed to former Alabama State
Representative Fred D. Gray for his many professional
achievements and his work in the Civil Rights Movement; and
WHEREAS, Fred D. Gray is the Senior Partner of the
firm, Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray, Gray, &
Nathanson, P.C.; at 94 years of age, Mr. Gray continues to
practice law and specializes in civil rights litigation, a
career mission of 70 years; and
WHEREAS, since 1956, Attorney Gray has worked with
the NAACP and Legal Defense Fund, Incorporated, and has been
involved in virtually every major legal battle during and
since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s;
during his career, he has represented both Rosa Parks and
Claudette Colvin, which successfully resulted in the Supreme
Court ruling that bus segregation is unconstitutional and an
order to the City of Montgomery and the State of Alabama to
desegregate; and
WHEREAS, Attorney Gray has represented many civil
rights icons, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Congressman John Lewis, and the Freedom Riders and Selma to
Montgomery Marchers; he has represented organizations just a
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Montgomery Marchers; he has represented organizations just a
few of which include the NAACP, Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, and Congress of Racial Equality; and he also
represented the victims of the horrific Tuskegee Syphilis
Study; and
WHEREAS, Attorney Gray has earned many awards and
honorary degrees, including the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the highest award a civilian can receive, bestowed
upon him by President Joseph Biden; he also received the
American Bar Association's Medal, the highest award given by
that organization, and the Legal Defense Fund's Thurgood
Marshall Award; and he has been honored by the Smithsonian
Institution with the permanent installation of his portrait
in the National Portrait Gallery; and
WHEREAS, Fred Gray and his work is deserving of this
recognition; his legacy is looking toward the future to
continue to fight racism as the struggle for equal justice
continues; the Fred D. Gray Institute for Human and Civil
Rights is hosting its inaugural National Symposium March
14-15 in Montgomery, Alabama, where national scholars,
activists, and community leaders will come together to
discuss ongoing civil rights issues and provide practical
and actionable outcomes; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, That former State Representative and
pioneer civil rights attorney, Fred D. Gray, is highly
commended for his many long-lasting contributions and
achievements over the course of his 70-year career, and this
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achievements over the course of his 70-year career, and this
resolution is offered to him as evidence of our high regard
and appreciation for his service to the Civil Rights
Movement, the State of Alabama, and our great Nation.
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