Chevene Bowers King (October 12, 1923 – March 15, 1988) was an American attorney, civil rights leader in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

during the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, and political candidate.

Early years

Born in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia m ...

, King was one of eight children of Clennon Washington King Sr., who graduated in 1916 from Tuskegee Institute, and Margaret (Slater) King, who attended

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

before transferring to Fisk College in Nashville. Among his six brothers were

Clennon Washington King Jr. Clennon Washington King Jr. (July 18, 1920 – February 12, 2000) was the second African-American man to run for the office of President of the United States after George Edwin Taylor, and whose attempts at civil rights actions and running for ...

, Slater King and the much younger Preston King. After he graduated from a segregated high school in Albany, his college years were interrupted by military service in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from 1943 to 1946.

Education

During his undergraduate years, King majored in industrial arts at

from 1941 to 1943, majored in history at West Virginia College from 1946 to 1947, after serving in WWII and transferred to

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

, a historically black university in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

where received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in history in 1949. The following fall, he arrived at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

where he earned his law degree in 1952. During law school, he married Cleveland native Carol Roumaine Koiner Johnson in July 1951. After passing the Ohio bar in 1953, he returned to his native Albany, where he passed the Georgia bar in 1954. He was the only black lawyer practicing south of Atlanta in

National figure

As an attorney, civil rights leader, and pioneering political candidate, King spent the rest of his life championing the causes of justice, opportunity, and dignity for all Americans. Despite being based in Albany throughout his career, he emerged as a national figure. In the early 1960s, he was a co-founder of the

Albany Movement The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comm ...

, the first major civil rights campaign for

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

(MLK) after Montgomery. During the Movement, King (no relation) represented scores of demonstrators including MLK, Ralph Abernathy,

Wyatt Tee Walker Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 – January 23, 2018) was an African-American pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was a chief of staff for Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1958 became an early board memb ...

and

Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...

. Despite the campaign being charactered as nonviolent in black and white, King faced violence first hand. In late July 1962, Dougherty County Sheriff D.C. "Cull" Campbell struck King multiple times splitting open his scalp with the 76-year-old lawman's walking cane. King was attempting to meet with a jailed demonstrator from Ohio named William Hansen when the sheriff told the lawyer to leave. When King ignored the order, the sheriff said he put him out. The incident including a photo of a bloodied King made the front page of the July 29, 1962 edition of the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. The following August, in 1963, March on Washington organizer

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

, noted the incident again, taking to task the Kennedy Administration from the steps of the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in ...

: "...what did the federal government do when Albany's deputy sheriff beat attorney C. B. King and left him half dead? What did the federal government do when local police officials kicked and assaulted the pregnant wife (C.B. King's sister-in-law) of Slater King, and she lost her baby?" In 1964, King became the first African-American since the late 19th-century to run from Georgia for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1970, he was the first African-American ever to run for Governor of Georgia, after being drafted statewide by a delegation of African-Americans who were weighing the possible gubernatorial candidacy of

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

, Leroy Johnson and King. Despite running a distant third behind

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

and

Carl Sanders Carl Edward Sanders Sr. (May 15, 1925 – November 16, 2014) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 74th Governor of the state of Georgia from 1963 to 1967. Early life and education Carl Sanders was born on May 15, 1925 in ...

, King's candidacy significantly boosted voter registration numbers among African-Americans statewide. He devoted much of his time to ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' law work for the poor and to volunteering in community projects for the needy. He was most noted as the lead attorney in a series of landmark lawsuits against longstanding discriminatory practices in the city and the state.

Legal cases

He won cases including '' Gaines v. Dougherty County Board of Education'', '' Lockett v. Board of Education of Muscogee County'', and '' Harrington v. Colquitt County Board of Education'' (involving multiple appeals over a period of time to gain full compliance with '' Brown v. Board of Education'' in those communities, which accelerated the pace of

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

in other areas); '' Anderson v. City of Albany'' and '' Kelly v. Page'' (reaffirming the right of citizens to peaceably assemble); '' Bell v. Southwell'' (ending the use of segregated

polling booths A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

, voiding an election in which separate booths were used); '' Brown v. Culpepper'', '' Foster v. Sparks'', '' Thompson v. Sheppard'', '' Pullum v. Greene'', '' Broadway v. Culpepper'', and '' Rabinowitz v. United States'' (prohibiting use of jury selection lists on which blacks were underrepresented and ending the exclusion of blacks on juries on the basis of race); and '' Johnson v. City of Albany'' (ending discriminatory practices in local government employment).

Death and legacy

In 1988, King died in Tijuana, Mexico where he was being treated for prostate cancer following a three-year battle. In 2000, King became the namesake of a federal courthouse.

Personal life

King is also the uncle of Baroness King of Bow, who was the second black female to be elected to British's House of Commons and holds a life peerage to the House of Lords. He is also the uncle of renowned choreographer and ballet master

Alonzo King Alonzo King, born in Georgia to civil-rights activists Slater King and Valencia King Nelson, is an American dancer and choreographer based in San Francisco. King grew up in Georgia and California, and, as an adult, decided his contribution wou ...

Alonzo King Lines Ballet The Alonzo King LINES Ballet (AKLB) is an American contemporary ballet company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The ballet company, founded by choreographer Alonzo King, premiered at San Francisco State University's McKenna Theatre in 1982. ...

Portrayal In The Media

King's life was dramatised by David Morley (writer) and broadcast by the BBC

References

External links

Remarks on the naming of the C. B. King United States Courthouse
by Sanford D. Bishop Jr., ''

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:King, C. B. 1923 births Activists for African-American civil rights Case Western Reserve University School of Law alumni School desegregation pioneers 1988 deaths People from Albany, Georgia United States Navy personnel of World War II Tuskegee University alumni Fisk University alumni