Early Life and Career
Born in Talladega, Alabama, Vance was the youngest of four children born to parents Harrell T. Vance and Mae Smith. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating from Woodlawn High School. He then received a B.S. from the University of Alabama in 1950, and a J.D. from University of Alabama School of Law in 1952. While at Alabama, Vance was purportedly the head of a secret yet powerful inter-fraternity organization known as The Machine and was elected as President of the Student Government Association. After earning his law degree, Vance entered military duty as an attorney on the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps, and was stationed at the Pentagon. One of his first assignments was to serve on the team of lawyers defending the Army in hearings against charges brought by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
After his military service, Vance received an LL.M. from George Washington University Law School in 1955 and served as a law clerk to Alabama Supreme Court Justice James Mayfield. He then served a one-year stint as an attorney for the U.S. Labor Department before entering private practice in Birmingham from 1956 to 1977.
As a lawyer, Vance quickly sided with the developing civil rights movement, as shown as his participation as an intervening plaintiff in litigation that ultimately resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims, which decided that state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population. Vance also was the first notable Birmingham attorney to reject the unwritten "gentleman's agreement" by which all black members of a jury pool were eliminated from serving as jurors in civil cases.
Vance served as Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party from 1966 to 1977. His election as Chairman capped a struggle within the Alabama Democratic Party, as a group loyal to the national party wrested control from a states' right faction loyal to Governor George Wallace. Throughout Vance's tenure as chairman, Wallace was never able to capture the state party organization, despite continual struggles between the two factions.
The most well-known example of this fight came during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as competing slates of delegates vied for credentials to be seated. Vance's group of party loyalists overcame challenges from both Wallace's group and a predominantly black slate headed by Dr. John Cashin of Huntsville, Alabama.
Vance was also a lecturer at the Cumberland School of Law, at Samford University from 1967 to 1969. He served for a number of years in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Read more about this topic: Robert Smith Vance
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