In December, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed unveiled a plan to rename West Jeff Davis Avenue in honor of Fred Gray, the Montgomery attorney and civil rights activist who represented Rosa Parks, and the dozen of Montgomery residents who were called to attend the Montgomery bus boycott were arrested. including the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Gray’s work in the Browder v. Gayle case resulted in the Supreme Court ordering Alabama to end segregation on public buses. He later represented black students who were denied entry to universities in Alabama because of their race and secured a settlement for the victims of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
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He has received numerous national awards for his courageous and tireless advocacy of equality and justice, including the Drum Major Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the William Robert Ming Advocacy Award from the NAACP, and the Equal Justice Award and Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Mr. Gray was elected the first black president of the Alabama State Bar in 2001.
He was also one of the first two African Americans to serve in the Alabama legislature since the Reconstruction, and served for over four decades. In 2019 he received a Living Legends Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
Fred Gray grew up on Montgomery Street, named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He said he was honored to be proposed to rename the street. “I hope what I’ve done has helped change things,” Gray told the Montgomery Advertiser. “It all started with instructions I received while living on West Jeff Davis.”
Mayor Reed said a change in the street name would signal the city’s continued commitment to the pursuit of equality for all here.
However, the plan faces a major obstacle imposed by the state of Alabama, which passed law in 2017 to prevent communities from targeting racially insensitive monuments, symbols, and memorials. The law prohibits “relocating, removing, changing, renaming, or otherwise disrupting” any Confederate or other monument that is 40 years or older – and fines cities that do so of $ 25,000.
The law also prohibits local governments from renaming buildings and streets with historical names that have existed for at least 40 years. Mayor Reed said individuals had volunteered to pay the fine the city would incur for renaming the street Fred Gray.
Alabama MP Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) proposed a bill earlier this year that would have repealed the 2017 Monument Preservation Act. The House’s Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee did not even allow a vote on the bill after a failed amendment that allowed remote monuments to be transferred to cemeteries and parks.
One of these parks is the Confederate Memorial Park, established by state lawmakers in 1964 as a “Shrine to Honor the Confederate Citizens of Alabama” and funded by a 1901 property tax ($ 671,584 in 2020) pensions for Confederate soldiers finance that Alabamians pay today. A proposed bipartisan bill to provide an equivalent amount for the preservation of black history in Alabama has not yet been put in place.
A Republican-sponsored bill introduced by Rep. Mike Holmes (R-Wetumpka) that would increase penalties for removing Confederate monuments received a public hearing last week in which Rep. Holmes alleged the loudly debunked myth, civil war is not about slavery. HB242 would impose a $ 10,000 fine on elected officials and institutions, including universities, for every day a memorial is removed.
The city faces another hurdle that has slowed down the renaming process considerably – a municipal ordinance requiring at least 60% of owners on the street to agree to the name change. Of 61 responses the city has received since December, over 30% were against the name change.
Citing these and other concerns, Montgomery City Council members unanimously voted Tuesday for a resolution expressing support for naming an “indefinite place or street” in honor of Fred Gray – just not necessarily West Jeff Davis Avenue. Mayor Reed said the vote nonetheless helps fuel renaming efforts by showing support for the process.
Fred Gray is now 90 years old. His sons Stanley and Fred Jr. attended Tuesday. Fred Gray Jr. praised Mayor Reed for his attention and said he hoped for the name change.