On April 4, 1968, six lawyers came to the aid of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a Federal District Court in Memphis, Tennessee. We visited W. J. Michael “Mike” Cody - one of the lawyers - in October 2019 at his law office in Memphis and he shared his remembrances of the untold legal efforts that were a big part of that fateful day.

This week, we shine the spotlight on James Weldon Johnson. Many know him as the author of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, but Johnson was also a lawyer and Executive Secretary of the NAACP. 

This week, Mark Curriden completes his discussion of the 1906 saga of Ed Johnson and the lawyer Noah Parden.

In Part 3, Mark Curriden takes us inside the United States Supreme Court as the 1906 saga of the Ed Johnson case makes its way to the nation's highest Court and how Noah Parden and Styles Hitchins made legal history.

This week we continue our discussion about one of the most important and little-known cases in American history, the case of Ed Johnson, who in 1906 was falsely accused of rape in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

This week Mark Curriden shares with us the compelling story of a 1906 legal drama that started with a false arrest for rape, a shameful trial that was chock full of abuse and gross injustice, and a lawyer named Noah Parden who along with the United States Supreme Court, made respect for the rule of law a gift to future generations of Americans.

In this special episode closing out our commemoration of Women's History Month, we pay tribute to Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, one of the most accomplished lawyers of the twentieth century.

In 1939, Jane Matilda Bolin became the first African American female judge in the nation's history. As a judge, serving forty years in the Domestic Relations Court in New York City, Judge Bolin made great strides in protecting the rights of children. In honor of Women's History Month, we highlight the outstanding career of this noteworthy legal figure.

Of the more than 250 cases she handled while at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the James Meredith case was perhaps the most noteworthy effort by Constance Baker Motley. In this episode, we take an in-depth look at how the case started, some aspects that were unique to the case, and what Mrs. Motley felt was the long-term impact and meaning of the whole matter.

In 1966, Constance Baker Motley became the first African American woman to be appointed as a federal judge. Joel Motley, III, Judge Motley’s son and producer of the multi-award-winning documentary, The Trials of Constance Baker Motley joins us to pay homage to this remarkable figure.

Constance Baker Motley was one of the most important civil rights lawyers of the twentieth century. Tapped by Thurgood Marshall in 1945 to join the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she was involved in more than 200 cases as either lead counsel or during the appeal of a case.

Donald Lee Hollowell was the one lawyer that Georgians would call on when their rights were being threatened. From his first case in 1952, all the way through his retirement in the early 90’s Hollowell’s name was synonymous with civil rights. In Part 2, his enduring legacy is discussed by veteran civil rights leader, Rev. Otis Moss, Jr.

In Part 1, the cases he handled are detailed by professor Maurice Daniels, author of Saving the Soul of Georgia: Donald L. Hollowell and the Struggle for Civil Rights.

Mercer University Law Professor Pat Longan joins us to reflect on the life and career of Judge William Augustus Bootle and the case that desegregated the University of Georgia.

In 1961, the fate of the nation's oldest public institution of higher learning hung in the balance. It would be up to one federal judge to rule on the question of equality in education.

As the Civil Rights Movement began to intensify, students all across the south staged lunch counter sit-ins. From Greensboro, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia lawyers aided them in their quest for justice.

Sit-ins became a prominent part of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s, with the most famous occurring in Greensboro, North Carolina. But as a form of protest, it was first used in 1939 by a lawyer named Samuel Wilbert Tucker.

Fred Grey, the lead attorney in the case Browder v. Gayle reflects on the legal efforts associated with the effort that launched Martin Luther King, Jr. to national prominence.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott makes the nation come face-to-face with the rottenness of segregation and the Jim Crow south.

Charles S. Johnson, III returns to talk about Brown 1 and the two arguments the lawyers made in the Supreme Court and how Brown 2 continues to shape the landscape of higher education.