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AT THE SPRING MEETING IN KEY BISCAYNE, THE COLLEGE PROUDLY HONORED ONE OF ITS OWN, FELLOW FRED D. GRAY, WITH THE THURGOOD MARSHALL EQUALITY AND JUSTICE AWARD, WHICH RECOGNIZES THOSE WHO HAVE STOOD STEADFAST IN THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE IN ALL FORMS. Fred D. Gray has dedicated his entire sixty-eight-year legal career as a law- yer in Alabama to the passionate pursuit of equality and justice. He has dedicated his life, in his words, “to destroying everything segregated \[he\] could find.” Indeed, his commitment is so well known and recognized, particularly by the folks in Alabama, that Past President Warren Lightfoot wrote, upon learning that the committee was considering Mr. Gray, “your committee could not find a more deserving candidate if you scoured the countryside and for several generations. He is an authentic American hero, and one of my personal heroes.” Fred Gray was born on December 14, 1930 in Montgomery, Alabama. His initial career path was to become a history teacher and a preacher. He is, in fact, an ordained minister. While attending Alabama State College, one of his professors, who Fred says made an indelible impression on him, noticed young Fred’s interest in civil rights and encouraged him to go to law school. The combination of Fred’s bus-riding experiences growing up in Alabama and this professor’s lectures led him to decide to attend law school and return to Montgomery to practice law after his 1954 admission to the Alabama Bar. With his passion for equality and justice, Gray has amassed an unparalleled record as a protector of civil rights. At twenty-four years old, he represented Rosa Parks after her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white per- son, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, of which Fred was one of the main architects. Fred went on to serve as lawyer and counselor to Dr. Mar- 25 JOURNAL