On This Day In Alabama History: First Black Legislators Elected Since Reconstruction

Alabama News Center | November 4, 2018 @ 5:00 am

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

November 3, 1970: Fred Gray and Thomas Reed were elected to the state House of Representatives on this day to become the first black Alabama legislators since Reconstruction. Gray is a civil rights attorney, preacher, and activist who has litigated several major civil rights cases in Alabama. Gray represented Rosa Parks when she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man and played a prominent role in dismantling segregation. He served as the president of the National Bar Association in 1985 and in 2001 was elected as the first African-American president of the Alabama State Bar. Reed once served as the president of the Alabama National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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