Voices of civil rights lawyers : reflections from the deep South, 1964-1980 / edited by Kent Spriggs ; foreword by Marian Wright Edelman.

Introduction -- How civil rights lawyers emerged -- Children of the South / Fred Gray -- The making of a lawyer / Barbara Phillips -- How I became a civil rights lawyer / Jack Drake -- From Gardendale, Alabama / Laughlin McDonald -- Growing up in Winnsboro, South Carolina / Larry Menefee -- Growing up in Bama -- Children of the north / Armand Derfner -- Growing up in the shadow of the holocaust / John C. Brittain -- Growing up on the Gold Coast / David Lipman -- Race consciousness / Mac Farmer -- Why did I go? / Kent Spriggs -- Growing up in Washington, D.C. -- The context of civil rights litigation -- Big events / Fred Gray -- Selma once more: the 1965 Selma March / Larry Aschenbrenner -- The first damages judgment against the KKK / Larry Aschenbrenner and Armand Derfner -- Democratic convention in Chicago: white Mississippi delegation barred / Reber Boult -- Senator McClellan seeks to prove SNCC is communist / Armand Derfner -- Miscegenation comes to Mississippi / Norm Siegel -- The full court press for voting rights in Alabama / Larry Aschenbrenner -- Mississippi seeks to ban the civil rights lawyers -- The tenor of the times / Larry Aschenbrenner -- Mass meetings, demonstrations, and boycotts / Barbara Lipman -- Being married to a civil rights lawyer / Jim Lewis -- From civil rights worker to civil rights lawyer / Dennis Roberts -- B. King, iconic civil rights lawyer / Bill Ferguson -- Seeking justice for a blind black man in front of Judge Cox / Kent Spriggs -- "Summer vacation" in Mississippi / Larry Aschenbrenner -- Get a bullet in your car at the law library / Henry Aronson -- The politics of civil rights lawyering / Kent Spriggs -- The Rev. C.K. Steele and racism in Tallahassee / Elliott C. Lichtman -- Mississippi notes / Armand Derfner -- Opening up the closed society -- Arrests of lawyers (and other "minor indignities") / John C. Brittain -- Arrests while practicing law in Mississippi / Armand Derfner -- Doing a little time in Holly Springs / Mac Farmer -- Elements of procedure I missed at Harvard Law School / Kent Spriggs -- Arrests, a beating, and a moment of weakness / Richard Sobol -- Arrested by Leander Perez Sr. / Henry Aronson -- Getting punched by Sheriff Clark and other misadventures / David Lipman -- Get a rifle barrel in the mouth for monitoring an election in Belzoni / Constance Slaughter-Harvey -- A very bad morning in Rankin County -- Modes of law practice / Fred Banks -- 538{1/2}: the Legal Defense Fund office in Mississippi / Richard Sobol -- Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee in Louisiana / Mac Farmer -- Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee in Mississippi / Armand Derfner -- It changed my life: lawyers constitutional rights committee in Mississippi / Larry Aschenbrenner -- The formation of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law / Larry Menefee -- Private practice in Alabama / Jack Drake -- Nonprofit and private practice in Alabama -- Basic legal rights -- Access to justice / Armand Derfner -- The friendly judicial climate -- Voting rights and political representation / Richard Sobol -- Voting shenanigans in Madison Parish / Fred Banks -- Rights lawyers emerge into politics / Laughlin McDonald -- Voting rights in Edgefield County / Larry Menefee -- Challenging at-large elections / Larry Aschenbrenner -- Mississippi pushes back against the Voting Rights Act / David Lipman -- Voting in LeFlore County -- Public accommodations / Solomon Seay -- Solomon Seay seeks public accommodation / Don Marmaduke -- Desegregating the Neshoba County courthouse / Richard Tuttle -- Integrating the Fox Theatre / Richard Sobol -- Trying to get service at Bill's Highway 80 24-hour Truck Stop / Larry Aschenbrenner -- Integrating the Admiral Benbow Inn swimming pool / Henry Aronson -- Desegregating the Parliament House Hotel -- School desegregation and municipal equalization / John Maxey -- Ulysses S. Grant's legacy / David Lipman -- School desegregation and municipal equalization / Fred Banks -- The Legal Defense Fund's massive effort / Kent Spriggs -- Desegregating schools in northern Mississippi -- Employment discrimination / Richard Sobol -- Crown Zellerbach becomes the standard / Kent Spriggs -- The perfectly segregated plant in the perfectly segregated town / Kent Spriggs -- Monsanto: fair employment comes to a megaplant -- How the civil rights movement and litigation advanced other movements for social justice -- Constitutional race-based litigation and the friendly judicial climate lead to other areas of constitutional litigation / Jack Drake -- The constitution comes to the state residential hospitals / David Lipman -- The rule of law comes to infamous Parchman Prison -- How the civil rights movement and litigation informed other movements for social justice / Barbara Phillips -- The legacy of other social justice movements / Mac Farmer -- Rights in Mississippi informs LGBT concerns -- Framing the contemporary dialogue of race / Barbara Phillips -- The Trojan horse called "diversity" / Larry Menefee -- White supremacy lives -- Conclusion.

Civil rights lawyers were handmaidens of change who worked in the back rooms during twentieth-century America's era of profound social upheaval. Kent Spriggs, a noted lawyer of the period, gathers stories of legal maneuvers and memories of racial injustices from 26 voices--white and black, male and female, Northern-born, and Southern-born--many of whom share their own defining moments as civil rights lawyers. This collective perspective adds depth to the history of the era and its window on the legal and extralegal activities that occurred away from the actual protest venues. The framing materials place civil rights litigation into the context of major events from the 1960s, and the concluding section reflects on contemporary relevancies and continuing legacies.

Includes bibliographies and index.

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