Julius Chambers: A Life in the Legal Struggle for Civil Rights - Hardcover

This meticulously researched book has much to offer specialists in civil rights history and anyone who teaches about Swann.--The Journal of Southern History A remarkable story well told. . . . [and] one that anyone interested in North Carolina history, and particularly the struggle for racial equality, should read.--Rob Christensen, The News and Observer This first biography of Chambers captur[es] his personality, character, and self-effacing determination. . . . Though books on legal topics are hardly known for their readability, this one is an exception. More than a simple biography of a lawyer, this account chronicles an entire law firm and how civil rights are achieved in the real world. Verdict: Essential.--Library Journal, Starred Review [This] carefully researched biography dives deep into the prominent litigator's life and work, highlighting the battles he and his colleagues fought for racial justice both in and out of the courtroom and the impact of those actions on American civil rights. . . . Will inspire anyone who makes it their mission to improve the lives of those around them.--Chapel Hill Magazine An enticing and readable biography of Chambers, and history of the law firm he led.--Cliff Bellamy, Durham Herald-Sun Rosen and Mosnier provide a painstakingly researched account of a civil rights lawyer and icon of the last quarter of the 20th century. Highly recommended.--Choice "An excellent resource for understanding how the civil rights struggle played out in less-heralded venues.--Publishers Weekly

Born in the hamlet of Mount Gilead, North Carolina, Julius Chambers(1936-2013) escaped the fetters of the Jim Crow South to emerge in the1960s and 1970s as the nation's leading African American civil rights attorney.Following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Chambers workedto advance the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's strategic litigation campaignfor civil rights, ultimately winning landmark school and employment desegregationcases at the U.S. Supreme Court. Undaunted by the dynamiting ofhis home and the arson that destroyed the offices of his small integrated lawpractice, Chambers pushed federal civil rights law to its highwater mark. In this biography, Richard A. Rosen and Joseph Mosnier connect thedetails of Chambers's life to the wider struggle to secure racial equalitythrough the development of modern civil rights law. Tracing his path froma dilapidated black elementary school to counsel's lectern at the SupremeCourt and beyond, they reveal Chambers's singular influence on the evolutionof federal civil rights law after 1964.