Julius Chambers Receiving ABA Award

Article Date: Friday, December 05, 2008

Written By: Russell Rawlings

From the ABA Division for Media Relations and Communication Services

Julius Chambers

CHICAGO, Dec. 4, 2008 — Julius L. Chambers, who risked his life to advance equality as one of the nation’s earliest civil rights lawyers, will receive the 2009 Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession.

“Julius Chambers’ courage and dedication to social justice, basic fairness and adherence to our Constitution’s promise of equal protection of the laws stand as enduring examples of how one individual can achieve gains for all of us, and of how that individual can work with others of like commitment to advance a nation,” said Fred Alvarez of Palo Alto, Calif., commission chair, in announcing Chambers’ selection.

“As his nominators said, Chambers ‘set a moral precedent within the legal profession.’  His leadership has not just been in the courtroom or by example.  He has personally mentored and encouraged law students and other lawyers to transform the legal system and promote the ideals of diversity,” said Alvarez.

The award will be presented Feb. 14 at the Sheraton Boston hotel, during the 2009 ABA Mid-Year Meeting.

Chambers was determined to become a lawyer as a 12-year-old, when in 1948 his father was denied payment for work and unable to find or pay a lawyer who would seek relief in a civil proceeding on behalf of a black person against a leading white citizen of the community.

He achieved that goal despite discrimination and poverty, earning a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina College, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was first in his class and the first African-American student to be editor-in-chief of the law review. 

Chambers was the first intern for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, selected by Thurgood Marshall, who was director-counsel of the fund and subsequently became the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

He interned for a year, and then the fund helped him launch a firm that is credited with influencing more landmark state and federal jurisprudence and legislation in areas of school desegregation and equity, employment and voting rights than any other in the country.

The same year that Chambers successfully argued the case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, establishing a duty of schools to dismantle racial segregation and approving use of busing to accomplish that, his law office was fire-bombed.

He has continued arguing in behalf of civil rights throughout his career, most recently in the case of Shaw v. Hunt regarding North Carolina’s compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act in establishing congressional districts, filed in 1995 and most recently decided in 2001.

In 1984, Chambers became director-counsel of LDF himself. During his career, he also has been chancellor of North Carolina Central University, and has been a lecturer or adjunct professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Virginia Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Columbia University Law School and the University of Maryland. Since 2002, he has been executive director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession is a catalyst to change the legal profession to reflect the society it serves.  It helps racially and ethnically diverse lawyers advance their careers and standing in the profession.

Its leadership, programs and information help the profession understand and eliminate racism, bigotry and discrimination. The commission works to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession, and thus enrich it.

The ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession is a catalyst to change the legal profession to reflect the society it serves. It helps racially and ethnically diverse lawyers advance their careers and standing in the profession.

Its leadership, programs and information help the profession understand and eliminate racism, bigotry and discrimination. The commission works to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession, and thus enrich it. 

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.