J.L. Chestnut (December 16, 1930 – September 30, 2008) [1] was an author, attorney, and a figure in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. He was the first African-American attorney in Selma, Alabama, and the author of the autobiographical book, Black in Selma, which chronicles the history of the civil rights struggle in Selma, including Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery marches. The New York Times review of Chestnut's autobiography says that As the paradoxical "nigger lawyer," Mr. Chestnut was in a privileged position to see into the souls of white folk.[2]
Chestnut was born in Selma, and attended Howard University Law School. He returned home as Selma's only black attorney, and represented civil rights demonstrators at trial there when the Selma movement began in the 1960s.
He died, aged 77, of kidney failure, after an illness lasting several months in a hospital in Alabama
References
- ^ Weber, Bruce (2008-09-30). "J.L. Chestnut Jr., 77; Selma Lawyer and Early Leader in Civil Rights Movement". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/us/01chestnut.html?_r=2&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ McWhorter, Diane (August 26, 1990). "Middle-Class Radical". The New York Times. New York. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DC103DF935A1575BC0A966958260.
External links
- "The Legacy of Rosa Parks", article by Chestnut in Counterpunch, October 26, 2005