Arthur D. Shores

For the first 30 years of his 54-year practice, Attorney Arthur D. Shores worked across Alabama, from the Tennessee line to Mobile Bay and from the Mississippi border to the Georgia line. Roughly between 1940 and 1950, he was the lone voice defending the civil rights of black people in the state during a time when his life was in constant jeopardy. He practiced civil rights law throughout Alabama and represented pioneers including Martin Luther King, Jr., Arthurine Lucy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Vivian Malone. In 1938, he successfully filed a case for voting rights, and in 1942, he fought for and won pay equity for black teachers in Jefferson County, Alabama. His civil rights work on behalf of all Alabamians became a lasting legacy for the state, and during the civil rights era he not only took part in change but helped make it happen.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States