Julius Chambers: A Life of Service, Courage, and Conviction

Join the Gantt Center for the documentary premiere of Julius Chambers: A Life of Service, Courage, and Conviction and discover the enduring impact of this legendary civil rights leader.

To receive discounted parking, please park in the Duke Energy garage (101 W. Stonewall Street entrance).

About Julius Chambers

In June 1964, Julius L. Chambers opened the first integrated law practice in North Carolina in a cold-water walk-up on East Trade Street in Charlotte. After leaving the University of North Carolina School of Law – where he graduated first in his class and became the first African-American to be Editor-in-Chief of the school’s Law Review – Chambers sought to open a general practice law firm that would provide legal services to the African-American community in a society that was mired in racial inequities and long-held prejudices.

Along with founding partners, James E. Ferguson, II, and Adam Stein, and often working with attorneys from the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., Chambers successfully litigated countless civil rights and criminal cases throughout the state.

In the 1970s, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, Griggs v. Duke Power Co. and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody became pivotal cases that helped end overt forms of racism and strengthened laws against school segregation and employment discrimination throughout the nation. His car dynamited and his home and the law office bombed – and burned to the ground – served as the backdrop to these accomplishments. His was indeed a life of service, courage and conviction.

Julius Chambers at his burned office. Photo courtesy Observer Trail of History

COVID-19 Attendance Protocol

To attend this program, please be prepared to satisfy one of the following:

• Bring and show your CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card or photo of your Vaccination Record Card.
• Bring and show proof of a negative lab-conducted COVID-19 PCR or rapid test. Earliest PCR sample collection date accepted is Saturday, February 19, 2022. Earliest rapid test sample collection date accepted is Monday, February 21, 2022.

Steve Crump is an award-winning African-American journalist, documentary film producer, and current television reporter for WBTV. A native of Louisville, KY, Crump first went to work at WBTV in 1984. He left the station after three years, but returned in 1989.

Crump has been described as the station’s institutional memory, having reported on many of the major events that shaped modern Charlotte, but may be more widely known for his Emmy Award® winning documentaries with subjects ranging from Apartheid in South Africa to civil rights in the American South. He has earned a number of other awards including four National Headliner Awards, the Gabriel Award, and more than a dozen first-place honors from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). In 2016, Crump was named the NABJ Journalist of the Year.