Fred Gray

Born on Montgomery’s west side, Gray promised his mother that he’d give seminary school a shot. But when that didn’t stick, he made another promise to himself that did: To become an attorney and use the legal system to destroy segregation. Gray defended The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in numerous court battles, represented Rosa Parks when she was arrested for failing to give up her seat, filed and won the federal court challenge to Montgomery’s segregated bus system, filed and won the case that led to the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March and filed and won the case that exposed one of the greatest injustices in American history, the Tuskegee syphilis project. He also won the court battles that desegregated Alabama’s public schools and colleges.