Clifford Durr | |
---|---|
Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission | |
In office November 1, 1941 - June 30, 1948 | |
President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
Personal details | |
Born | Clifford Judkins Durr March 2, 1899 Montgomery, Alabama |
Died | May 12, 1975 Elmore County, Alabama | (aged 76)
Resting place | Greenwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | |
Children | 5 |
Alma mater | University of Alabama (B.A.) Oxford University (B.C.L.) |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Clifford Judkins Durr (March 2, 1899 – May 12, 1975) was an Alabama lawyer who played an important role in defending activists and others accused of disloyalty during the New Deal and McCarthy eras.[1] He also was the lawyer who represented Rosa Parks in her challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance, due to the infamous segregation of passengers on buses in Montgomery.[1] This is what launched the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott.
Durr was born into a patrician Alabama family.[2] After studying at the University of Alabama, being president of his class, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.[1] He returned to the United States to study law, then joined a prominent law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1924. In 1926 he married Virginia Foster, whose sister, Josephine, would be the first wife of Hugo Black.[1]