DL talks with Fred David Gray a legendary civil rights attorney, preacher and activist who came to prominence working with Martin Luther King Jr. and defending him from tax evasion charges, winning an acquittal from an all-white Jury. Among his many famous civil rights cases, Gray defended Rosa Parks, who was charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to sit in the rear of segregated city buses, and represented plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit about the controversial federal Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972). During the Great Depression, the study was changed to review untreated syphilis in rural African-American male subjects, who thought they were receiving free health care and funeral benefits. Gray is portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the 2014 film Selma and by Shawn Michael Howard in the 2001 film Boycott, in which Gray, himself, plays a cameo role as a supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices