Law Practice in Charlotte
In June 1964, Chambers began a solo law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina - a firm which eventually became the first integrated firm in North Carolina history. With fellow founding partners James E. Ferguson II and Adam Stein, along with lawyers from LDF, the firm successfully litigated a number of key cases before the Supreme Court of the United States that would help to shape evolving American civil rights laws, including: the school busing decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971); and two important Title VII employment discrimination cases Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody (1975).
The firm's efforts were met several times with violence from white supremacists. While Chambers was at a speaking engagement in January 1965 in New Bern, North Carolina his car was destroyed by a bomb. On November 22, 1965, in the midst of the first hearings of the Swann school busing case, Chambers's home was bombed along with three other homes of African American leaders: then North Carolina NAACP President Kelly Alexander, his brother Frederick Alexander (a Charlotte city councilman) and community activist Reginald Hawkins. Amazingly, no one was injured in these bombings. The bombings received a great deal of national television and newspaper coverage, including an article in the New York Times. In February 1971, Chambers's downtown Charlotte law office was also firebombed.
Chambers reentered private law practice with this firm (now Ferguson Stein Chambers Adkins Gresham & Sumter PA) after he retired from his position as chancellor of North Carolina Central University on June 30, 2001.
Read more about this topic: Julius L. Chambers
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