Arthur D. Shores
"Dean of Black Lawyers in The State of Alabama."
During the first 30 years of his 54-year-old practice, Attorney Shores practiced all over the State of Alabama - from the Tennessee line to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile Bay, and from the Mississippi borders to the Georgia limits. During the period roughly between 1940 and 1950 he was the only lone voice in the wilderness defending the civil rights of black people. Mr. Shores practiced civil rights law all over the state of Alabama during an era in which his life was in constant jeopardy. He represented such civil rights pioneers as Martin Luther King, Jr., Arthurine Lucy, Fred Shuttlesworth and Vivian Malone.
Attorney Shores was responsible for successfully filing a case for voting rights in 1938. In 1942, he fought for and won pay equity for black teachers in Jefferson County, Alabama.
Mr. Shores' civil rights work on behalf of all Alabamians is his living legacy for our State. He not only was part of the Change during the civil rights era, but he made it happen.
Marker is on 5th Avenue North, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
