Eufaula, Alabama

===Civil rights movement===

====Eufaula housing case====
For a number of years after the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]]'s 1954 decision ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', which overturned ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' by declaring racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, the schools in Eufaula remained unintegrated.<ref name=gray>{{cite book|author=Fred D. Gray|title=Bus Ride to Justice: Changing the System by the System : the Life and Works of Fred Gray, Preacher, Attorney, Politician|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bc4DqcUSi4C&pg=PA131|date=October 1, 2012|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-58838-286-3|pages=131–9}}</ref>  In 1955 the Eufaula Housing Authority sought to use [[eminent domain]] to condemn land on which a number of black families had lived since emancipation in order to build public housing, a park, and an expansion of the white high school.<ref>{{cite news|title=Suit Claims Segregation In Housing|work=Times Daily|date=June 10, 1958|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bhYsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2026%2C1035955}}</ref>  The residents of the neighborhood, surrounded on all sides by white areas, thought that the city's motive was actually to keep their children out of a newly built high school once the now-inevitable racial integration occurred.<ref name=gray/>

In 1958 civil rights attorneys [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]] and [[Constance Baker Motley]] filed a suit in the [[U.S. District court]] claiming that their clients' constitutional rights were being violated by the plan.<ref name=gray/>  The federal case was dismissed, but Gray (now appearing without Motley)<ref name=gray/> appealed to the Alabama Circuit Court, where the case was heard by then-judge [[George Wallace]].<ref name=negro/> As before, Gray claimed that since the new development would allow white residents only, their civil rights were being violated by the City.<ref name=negro>{{cite news|title=Negro Requests White Residence|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=October 21, 1958|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Wy0eAAAAIBAJ&pg=4750%2C2871781}}</ref>  Although his appeal of the constitutional issue was unsuccessful, Gray also appealed the city's valuations of his clients' properties and, arguing before [[all-white jury|all-white juries]] in Wallace's court, managed in most of the cases to win much higher prices.<ref name=gray/>

====Voting Rights Act of 1965====
After the passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] the [[United States Department of Justice]] sent federal observers into 24 southern counties to enforce its provisions regarding voter registration for the Fall 1965 elections.  Many of these counties saw a significant increase in black registration, but Eufaula, not having federal supervision, had comparatively low rates.  For instance, on August 16, 1965, 600 black citizens waited in line at the County courthouse in Eufaula to register, but by the time the office closed, only 265 had managed to fill out the paperwork.<ref>{{cite book|author=Adam Fairclough|title=To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFSgLg1S7gIC&pg=PA265|year=2001|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2346-6|page=265}}</ref>

In 1966 the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) responded by appointing a local Eufaulan, Daddy Bone, to organize [[voter registration drive]]s in Eufaula.  Bone initiated a series of nonviolent protests and boycotts of local stores that refused to hire blacks which attracted SNCC supporters from around the [[Southeastern United States]].  The city of Eufaula, under some pressure from the businessmen whose stores were targeted, passed anti-picketing laws and began arresting demonstrators ''en masse'' for violating them.  Bone brought in civil rights lawyer [[S.S. Seay|S. S. Seay]] to defend the protestors, who were mostly convicted, and in such numbers as to overwhelm the county jail.<ref>{{cite book|author=Solomon Seay Jr. |title=Jim Crow and Me: Stories from My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsFdRQDPmNMC&pg=PA63|date=December 1, 2011|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-60306-142-1|pages=63–6}}</ref>

====School integration====

In July 1968 the [[United States Department of Justice]] filed suit against 76 Alabama school districts, including that of Eufaula, in an attempt to bring them into compliance with ''Brown v. Board of Education''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Area Schools Named in Suit|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uqofAAAAIBAJ&pg=673%2C1792349|work=Gadsden Times|date=July 15, 1968}}</ref>

Schools in Eufaula remained segregated by race until the fall of 1966 and the first blacks graduated with the senior class of 1967.<ref name=first>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ytwiAAAAIBAJ&pg=4209%2C5989077|title=No Incidents at School's First Integrated Prom|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=May 22, 1991}}</ref>  After integration began the school stopped sponsoring social events, such as [[prom]]s<ref name=first/> although unofficial segregated events were still held.  By 1990, students at [[Eufaula High School (Eufaula, Alabama)|Eufaula High School]] had begun pressuring school officials to allow them to hold integrated proms, and the first such was held in 1991 without incident.<ref name=first/>