Defending Freedom: The Arthur D. Shores Story is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2024.
Arthur Davis Shores (1904-1996) was a civil rights attorney who lived and worked in Alabama.
The topic of this film is his life and career and the role he played in the civil rights movement.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Executive producer: Seth Johnson
** Producer: Rebekah Hall Evans
** Director: Joel Evans
** Narrator: Steve Crocker
** Production: Alabama Public Television
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 56 minutes
Many persons are interviewed in the film.
Here are the names of the participants
(listed in alphabetical order):
** Richard Arrington (born 1934) – the first African American mayor of Birmingham (1979-1999)
** Houston Brown (born 1942) – he was a judge in Alabama 2000-2015
** U. W. Clemon (born 1943) – Alabama’s first African American federal judge (1980-2009)
** J. Mason Davis (born 1935) – a civil rights attorney
** Juanita Hixon – secretary for Arthus Davis Shores
** Doug Jones (born 1954) – a US Senator for Alabama 2018-2021
** Terri Sewel (born 1965) – a member of US Congress, the House of Representatives, from the 7th district of Alabama, since 2011
** Barbara Shores – daughter of Arthur Davis Shores
** Gregory Vincent – a lawyer – president of Talladega College since 2022
Marjorie White – director, Birmingham Historical Society
Randall Woodfin (born 1981) – Mayor of Birmingham since 2017
Archive footage is used between the talking heads.
Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads.
Archive footage is used when the narrator is talking.
Archive footage allows us to see a glimpse of Arthur Davis Shores who was interviewed as an old man.
Shores was born into a poor family in 1904, but he still managed to get a good education: first elementary school and later secondary school (high school).
Having finished high school, he wanted to go to a university in order to study law. But he faced two problems:
# 1. It was - and still is - very expensive to attend a law school in the US
# 2. He could not study at a university in his home state Alabama, because a local university would not accept an African American student.
At that time, universities in Alabama were only open for white students. Universities in Alabama were not fully integrated until 1963.
He worked for fifteen years as a school teacher in order to save up money and when he was ready to study law, he studied at La Salle Extension University, which was willing to accept an African American student.
While this university offered classes and seminars in Chicago, the primary mode of delivery was by way of distance learning.
Shores graduated as a lawyer in 1937. Having graduated as a lawyer, he also had to pass the bar for Alabama. This would allow him to practice law in Alabama.
He had to take the test three times. The first two times, he was told that he had failed. The third time his paper was accepted. In 1937, when he passed the bar, he was the first African American attorney in Alabama.
As a lawyer, he took on many cases where he tried to help African Americans who had suffered an injustice.
He did not always win, but he won many cases and he became a well-known and a respected person in the African American community.
What kind of cases did he take? Here are three examples which are mentioned in the film:
Case # 1. Voting rights
When some African Americans went to the office for voter registration, because they wanted to register as voters, they were told they had to take a test in order to be approved as voters.
One question was:
How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap?
Another question was:
How many slices are there in a loaf of bread?
A third question was:
Can you recite the US constitution word for word for me?
The first two questions are absurd.
Nobody can answer these questions.
The third question is irrelevant. If a person can recite the US constitution, this does not mean that he or she knows anything about politics.
All these questions were invented, so the applicant
would fail the test. White citizens did not have to take a test when they wanted to register as voters.
Shores joined several African Americans when they went to the office of registration and he was able to help them.
Case # 2. Equal pay
Some African American workers discovered that they were paid less than white workers who had the same job. They were not happy about this fact. They went to Shores who took the case to court and won.
But after a while, the African American workers discovered that nothing had changed: they were still paid less than the white workers who had the same job. The company had simply ignored the verdict of the court!
Shores went back to the court where he explained the situation. The court supported his complaint. The company was informed that they had to respect the verdict of the court. This time they did!
Case # 3. Education
In 1955, an African American woman Autherine Lucy (1929-2022) wanted to attend the University of Alabama, but she was not accepted, because the university had a policy of whites-only.
In 1954, the US Supreme Court had issued a ruling which said that segregation in education was a violation of the constitution.
Slowly, schools in the South began to be integrated. At first elementary schools and later high schools. But for several years, integration did not reach the level of university.
Shores took her case. He sued the university in court and he won. In 1956, his client was allowed to attend the university. But on the day when she arrived, there was a huge demonstration against the integration of the university.
Many white students complained. They said they did not want black people like Lucy to attend the university.
The university responded by saying that Lucy could no longer be accepted as a student, because the university could not guarantee her safety.
Shores had won the case, but the integration of the university lasted only one day!
The University of Alabama resisted integration for several years. This institution was not fully integrated until 1963.
Shores often worked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
In some cases, he worked with the famous lawyer Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) who would later become the first African American member of the US Supreme Court (1967-1991).
Shores was involved in several cases concerning civil rights in Alabama. He defended African Americans who were victims of racial segregation.
Whenever he won a case, he was popular in the African American community, but he was hated by people who represented and who supported white supremacy, first and foremost the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
The Klan tried to harass and intimidate any person who opposed their control and domination of Alabama. The campaign for white power included violent attacks on the people who opposed the Klan.
In 1963, the house where Shores lived was targeted two times: the first bomb attack was on 20 August; the second bomb attack was on 04 September. Shores and his family survived both attacks, but the Klan did not stop there.
The Klan arranged a large-scale bomb attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Several bombs exploded in this church on 15 September 1963.
This time, there was not only massive material damage. Four young girls were killed.
When the results of this bomb attack were announced, the Klan realised that they had not scored a victory for White America and for segregation.
The American public responded with disgust. The Klan began to lose support among the white population of the USA, not only in the North but also in the South.
This horrible episode was a turning point in the history of Alabama. The people who supported freedom, equal rights, and justice for all began to take control of the state.
This was not the end of racial segregation in Alabama. But it was the beginning of the end of racial segregation in this southern state.
The cruel and vicious bomb attack on the congregation of the 16th Baptist Church created more support for the civil rights movement among the American population:
** In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act
** In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act
The name Arthur D. Shores is not as well-known as the name Thurgood Marshall or the name Martin Luther King Jr., but as an attorney, who worked on numerous cases, he played a significant role in the civil rights movement.
The people who are interviewed in this film explain how he worked and how well he worked.
The older people, who knew him personally, speak highly of him. The younger people did not know him personally, but they recognise the contributions he made during his work as an attorney who fought for freedom, equal rights, and justice for all.
The story of Arthur D. Shores is important. It deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
Eyes on the Prize
Season 1 = six episodes
The topic is the Civil Rights Movement 1954-1965
(1987) (repeated 2006)
Eyes on the Prize
Season 2 = eight episodes
The topic is the Civil Rights Movement 1965-1985
(1990) (repeated 2008)
Freedom Riders
American Experience
(2011)
The Fire in Anniston:
A Freedom Riders Story
Alabama Public Television
(2021)
# 2. Books
The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement:
Black Communities Organizing for Change
By Aldon D. Morris
(1984)
Parting the Waters:
America in the King Years 1954-63
Volume 1
By Taylor Branch
(1988)
Pillar of Fire:
America in the King Years 1963-65
Volume 2
By Taylor Branch
(1998)
At Canaan’s Edge:
America in the King Years 1965-68
Volume 3
By Taylor Branch
(2006)
A More Beautiful and Terrible History:
The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History
By Jeanne Theoharis
(2018)
The Movement:
The African American Struggle for Civil Rights
By Thomas C. Holt
(2021)
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The civil rights attorney
Arthur Davis Shores
(1904-1996)
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Autherine Lucy (left)
Thurgood Marshall (centre) and
Arthur D. Shores (right)
on the way to court
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Defending Freedom
The Arthur D. Shores Story
Alabama Public Television
2024
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