Fred Gray has long been a part of the Civil Rights movement. At just 24 years old, he helped defend Rosa Parks after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus sparked the bus boycott and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. He also is known for his work with school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and for the Gomillion v. Lightfoot ruling that declared gerrymandering as a means of disenfranchising African Americans unconstitutional.
Mayor Steven L. Reed of Montgomery now wants to find ways to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the city’s bus boycott, and he wants one of those to be to rename the street Gray grew up on. Gray grew up in Montgomery and moved to Jeff Davis Avenue, a street named for the president of the Confederacy, at 6 years old. As a boy, the significance of the name was lost on him. “I never thought about who Jeff Davis was, probably didn’t know anything about him until I got in high school,” he stated in a New York Times article. But as a young man, he became determined “to destroy everything segregated.”
Mayor Reed’s call to change the street name has a caveat. A law Governor Kay Ivey signed into law in 2017 prohibits a change to the street. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act states, “No architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument which is located on public property and has been so situated for 40 or more years may be relocated, removed, altered, renamed, or otherwise disturbed.” Those between 20 and 40 years old may only be disturbed in certain circumstances.
In 2019, the law was ruled an unconstitutional violation of the right to free speech, and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that it couldn’t be enforced. The penalty for violating the law was fixed at a $25,000 fine. Cities have been paying the $25,000 fine and have been taking down statues at a record pace since the controversial killing of George Floyd in May. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered the removal of a monument in Linn Park, stating the fine was less costly than continued civil unrest. A confederate monument in Huntsville was also removed in October and was reassembled in the Confederate burial section of a city-owned cemetery.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has pledged to uphold the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, stating in a video, “I urge my fellow Alabamians to take note of those casting votes and spending their tax dollars to violate a law of this state. It is now a question of when not if these same leaders will cast aside yet another law—being guided only by the political winds of the moment.”
Despite the threat of a $25,000 fine, Mayor Reed is moving forward with the plan. He wants Gray to be present to see name change. “I don’t believe you should wait for people to die before you give them their flowers,” Reed stated. At 90 years old, the name change would help solidify Gray’s name in history and honor his life’s work.
“This is about honoring those people who deserve to be honored,” Reed said in an interview. “And maybe confronting some of those who were honored at a previous time who never should have been.”
