Photo note: To download a photo of Chambers, see the end of the release.

Julius Chambers to give keynote address at spring commencement

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Julius Chambers, pioneering civil rights attorney and alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will deliver the university’s spring commencement address, Chancellor James Moeser has announced.

Moeser will preside at the ceremony, to be held May 9, 2004, at 9:30 a.m. at Kenan Stadium.

"I am delighted that Julius Chambers has accepted our invitation to give the commencement address next spring," Moeser said. "May marks the 50^th anniversary of the Brown versus Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court, and I think it is especially fitting that Julius will address our graduates at this important moment in our nation’s history."

The Commencement Speaker Committee unanimously recommended him to Moeser, who makes the final speaker selection. The committee, composed of student and faculty leaders, is chaired by Dr. Bernadette Gray-Little, executive associate provost.

"He is a man of stature who has worked as an activist and educator and is known as one of the country’s leading civil-rights attorneys," said George Leamon, senior class president and a selection committee member. "What impresses me most about Chambers is that he has never left the trenches."

Born in 1936 in Mount Gilead, Chambers graduated from North Carolina Central University in 1958. He earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan before entering law school at UNC.

Chambers was chosen as editor in chief of the North Carolina Law Review. He was the first African American to hold this title at any historically white law school in the South. Graduating first in his class in 1962, Chambers taught at Columbia University Law School while earning a master’s degree in law.

As an intern with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. (LDF), Chambers received 12 months of training in civil rights litigation. Interns then returned home to start their own practices. The fund provided some initial capital and a small monthly stipend to keep these new law practices afloat.

In June 1964, Chambers opened his law practice in Charlotte. Originally a one-person law firm, Chambers added two founding partners, James E. Ferguson II and Adam Stein, in 1967. The law firm would eventually become the first integrated law firm in North Carolina.

Chambers and his partners argued a number of significant civil rights cases in front of the Supreme Court. Chambers argued Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the landmark case that upheld busing as a means to desegregate schools, in 1971. He also argued Griggs v. Duke Power Co. and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, two of the Supreme Court’s most significant Title VII decisions.

In 1984, Chambers returned to the LDF as its director-counsel. Chambers supervised 24 staff attorneys and approximately 400 cooperating attorneys around the nation. Under his leadership, the LDF became the first line of defense against the political assault on civil rights legislation and affirmative action programs.

Passionate about education, Chambers returned to North Carolina Central University in 1993 as its chancellor. During his tenure, the university launched a $50 million capital fund-raising campaign and established its first 10 endowed chairs. He retired in June 2001 and returned to the law practice he began in 1967 – now called Ferguson, Stein, Chambers, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham & Sumter, P.A.

He has maintained close ties to the School of Law, currently serving as director of the Center for Civil Rights, a component of the school. The center is committed to the advancement of civil rights and social justice, especially in the American South. The center’s work focuses on education, economic justice, employment, health care, housing and community development, and voting rights.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/alum/chambers_julius.jpg

(Gunter, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication.)

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu