FLORENCE – Renowned civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray will give a talk Friday at “The Alabama Legacy Luncheon: A Conversation on Advancing Justice and Equality” this week at the Renaissance Shoals Resort in Florence.
The two-hour event will include a luncheon followed by a one-hour program featuring Gray. The program will include Gray’s remarks and a moderated conversation, offering guests the opportunity to hear directly from the man who represented Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others who helped transform the nation.
Gray also represented Dr. Wendell Gunn, the student who integrated the University of North Alabama, then known as Florence State, in 1963. Gunn went on to work in the Ronald Reagan White House and served on the UNA Board of Trustees, from which he recently retired.
At the sold-out event, attendees will gain first-hand insight into the principles, stories, and strategies that shaped Gray’s lifelong pursuit of justice — from dismantling segregation in Montgomery’s buses and Alabama’s schools to fighting for accountability in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
“Grounded in history and driven by purpose, The Alabama Legacy Luncheon celebrates Fred Gray’s extraordinary courage and enduring impact,” event organizers said. “It is more than a tribute — it is a call to continue the work of justice, equity, and community building that defines his legacy.”
The program will take place on the 70th anniversary of the Dec. 5, 1955, start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began after Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. The boycott lasted over a year.
Gray represented Parks in the case, which ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling segregation on public buses unconstitutional.
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