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In December, 1940, Fredric Charles Carter,
Esq. of Richmond, while preparing important briefs in the Supreme Court of
Appeals Law Library, was waved to go to an alcove in the southeast corner
of the law library by an assistant librarian as a result of a new Supreme
Court policy. Carter, a lawyer of color, refused to go. Carter similarly
refused an order from the head librarian to come to his office, whereupon
the head librarian summoned a policeman. The police officer ordered Carter
to "Get going, the librarian wants to speak to you in his office." To this
Carter (according to his letter to Chief Justice Preston W. Campbell)
replied, "I am a member of the Bar and don’t have to talk to anyone unless
I choose to do so. If I am under arrest, I would like to know that." The
police officer left after talking to the librarian and Carter finished
what he was doing about 45 minutes later. Upon returning to his office, he
wrote Chief Justice Preston W. Campbell, Abington, Virginia, by letter
dated December 23, 1940 to inquire as to whether the Court had indeed
formulated such a policy relegating Negro lawyers to a special section of
the Law Library and to complain of his treatment. Chief Justice Campbell,
due to illness, referred Carter’s letter to Acting Justice Holt for proper
consideration to the next term of Court. After several months and no additional response from the Supreme Court, Carter initiated contact with his friends about the need to organize a Bar Association. In a letter dated April, 1941 to Valentine & Cooley, Esquires, he wrote, "What you said with reference to a meeting of as many of us would attend at some designated time and place is the proper approach to the end that we be in position to deal effectively in matters of this kind in particular and in matters generally pertaining to us as members of the Bar and of the legal profession." Immediately thereafter, R. H. Cooley, Jr. (Petersburg) initiated contact with lawyers in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport News, and the Howard University School of Law soliciting their interest in organizing a Bar Association of all the Negro attorneys in the state and the names and addresses of other lawyers who may be interested. From the need to confront a policy that offended personal and professional dignity, to the need to associate for personal and professional growth and development; from the need to encourage and insure Virginia State Bar involvement, to the need to use strength and have input in judicial appointments; from the need to provide community leadership, the Old Dominion Bar began to confront issues in the "early years" which are ironically mirrored in its operation fifty years hence. For additional information see:
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