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    Vol. 40, No. 1- 50 Years Later

     

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    The Dialect of Daring From Birmingham to Shelby County

    by Wilson Adam Schooley

    It was that breathless, vertiginous moment before a collision. Nearing a crossroads, the civil rights train barreled in on the building steam of justice. Stuck on the rails in its path lumbered America’s convoy of racial injustices. Standing proud at the junction, black Americans laid tracks for their future. It was 1963, and history was accelerating before our eyes.

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    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Looking Back on 1963 Fifty Years Later

    by Jon Greenbaum

    At his inauguration as Alabama’s governor in January 1963, George Wallace infamously and defiantly declared in a speech written by a former Ku Klux Klan leader, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” Earlier that month, the Kennedy administration, hesitant to alienate white southern constituents who been indispensable to his narrow victory in the 1960 election, had declined to issue any statement recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Instead, the administration would hold a reception for African-American leaders on President Lincoln’s birthday in February 1963.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Advocating for Equality

    by Tanya N. Terrell and Stephen J. Wermiel

    For nearly fifty years, the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (IRR) has served as a voice within the legal profession for protecting and advancing civil rights, civil liberties, and social justice. Created during the height of the civil rights movement, IRR seeks to reflect the profession’s commitment to achieving, through the legal system, the American ideals of justice, freedom, and equality for all.