Fred Gray

Fred Gray is a pioneering American civil rights attorney, preacher, activist, and state legislator whose legal brilliance and moral courage helped dismantle institutional segregation in the South. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1930, Gray became one of the first Black attorneys admitted to the Alabama State Bar and dedicated his career to challenging Jim Crow laws through strategic litigation. He served as legal counsel for many of the civil rights movement’s most significant cases, including representing Rosa Parks after her arrest and serving as the lead attorney in Browder v. Gayle (1956), the landmark federal case that successfully challenged Montgomery’s bus segregation ordinances and led to the desegregation of the city’s public transportation system.