ACSblog: Remembering Movement Lawyers and Viewing Constitutional History from the Bottom Up

"Len Holt, Donald Hollowell and Howard Moore, Jr. These names, unfamiliar even to many who are avid readers of civil rights [including black voting rights] history, feature prominently in Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement. All three - Holt, Hollowell, and Moore - were attorneys who litigated in the federal and state courts and worked in the trenches with political activists and community organizers. They made important contributions to the mid-twentieth century struggle for racial equality - contributions overshadowed when we view the legal history of the movement primarily from the perspective of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justices who decide landmark cases in the nation's capital, and the well-known lawyers who litigated marquee cases. Courage to Dissent - a book that blends the legal and social history of the civil rights movement within the context of a particular community - shines a spotlight on these unsung lawyers and the activists with whom they worked. It explores a largely forgotten history of progressive lawyering in postwar America. Its protagonists are legal professionals and agents of change whom we ought to remember."

http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/node/18334 

This referenced article talks about the book, "Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement," By Tomiko Brown-Nagin.