Solomon S. Seay
Attorney Solomon Snowden Seay Jr. (1931-2015) played an integral role in Alabama communities and courtrooms in support of the civil rights movement from the late 1950s into the 1990s. Seay most notably participated in court cases aimed at desegregating public facilities in Montgomery, Montgomery County, ensuring that Alabama counties enforced the integration of public schools mandated by state and federal courts, and outlawing disenfranchisement practices dictated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The city lost the case, and U.S. District Court judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. ordered the city to integrate all public parks. In reaction, Montgomery mayor William A. Gayle closed all city parks in January 1959, and they remained closed for nine years.