[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 29, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E37]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ORZELL BILLINGSLEY, CIVIL RIGHTS HERO

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EARL F. HILLIARD

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 29, 2002

  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a great hero of the civil 
rights struggle in Alabama, Orzell Billingsley.
  Mr. Billingsley was one of the lead lawyers for Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the struggle which 
is known as the first act of the modern civil rights movement. This 
historic movement created the freedom in America which blacks now 
enjoy.
  One of the first ten blacks admitted to the Alabama bar, he then 
began a series of legal representation during civil rights cases, and 
was instrumental in taking the movement into the courts.
  When Alabama created its ``Freedom Democrats,'' named the National 
Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), Mr. Billingsley was General Counsel 
for the Party, and was a delegate for the NDPA at the 1968 Democratic 
National Convention in 1968.
  Deeply concerned with real democracy, Mr. Billingsley was 
instrumental in the creation of over 20 small towns incorporated in 
Alabama. That these black majority towns were incorporated during the 
difficult days of the civil rights era shows how important his 
contribution to freedom and democracy was.
  One of his most important cases was that of Caliph Washington, who 
was in a scuffle in 1957 with a policeman when the policeman's gun 
accidentally fired. While the officer's wife collected insurance money 
following what was ruled an accidental death, Mr. Washington was 
nevertheless charged with capital murder by an all white jury.
  Mr. Billingsley fought the conviction through four trials over the 
next 15 years, finally winning an acquittal for Mr. Washington and 
ending the era of all white juries in Jefferson County, Alabama.
  Through all these years of heroic work, Mr. Billingsley often was 
unpaid for his services as an attorney, because his clients were 
impoverished. He simply went on with his life saving work, putting 
people and freedom before money.
  Mr. Billingsley was nationally prominent, and was the recipient of 
calls from Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson during the civil 
rights crisis in Alabama.
  Mr. Billingsley passed away on December 14, 2001. His work for 
freedom and justice will live on forever.

                          ____________________