Two NewSouth Books authors, Fred Gray and Constance Curry, will be added to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame during the 2012 Trumpet Awards on Friday, January 6, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta.
Attorney Fred D. Gray served as the Montgomery Bus Boycott’s lawyer in 1950 at the age of only 24, defending such civil rights figures as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. He has worked on numerous civil rights cases since that time, including defending the Freedom Riders, the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers, and the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Gray chronicled his civil right career in his memoir Bus Ride for Justice and the book The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, published by NewSouth Books; an updated edition of Bus Ride will be published in spring 2012.
Constance Curry’s most recent publication from NewSouth Books was co-authoring Bob Zellner’s autobiography, the award-winning The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, currently in production as a movie with executive producer Spike Lee. During the Civil Rights Movement, Curry worked for a number of organizations including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She is a documentary filmmaker and the author of a number of books; she has twice received the Lillian Smith Book Award, including for Wrong Side of Murder Creek.
2012 marks the ninth year for the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, sponsored by the Trumpet Awards Foundation. The Foundation states that the purpose of the Walk is “to give recognition to the foot soldiers of justice who sacrificed and struggled to make equality a reality for all.” Learn more at the Foundation website, trumpetfoundation.org.
Bus Ride to Justice: Changing the System by the System by Fred Gray and The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement by Bob Zellner and Constance Curry are both available direct from NewSouth Books or your favorite bookstore.