Last week, Anthony Fox wrapped up his tenure as
the nation’s 17th Secretary of Transportation. President Obama appointed him to the post; he
was confirmed July 2, 2013.
Before taking on that post Mr. Fox served 3 and
a half years as Charlotte’s 54th Mayor. Fox is a young star in the Democratic Party,
and led the City’s successful bid to host the Democratic Party’s 2012
Convention, at which the Party conferred its nomination on President Obama, who
went on to win a second term in office in November 2012.
Fox, 45, was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, graduated from West Charlotte High School, and attended and graduated from Davidson College, (located in Mecklenburg County, the county of which Charlotte is
the County Seat), where he became the first African American Student Body
President. After matriculating at Davidson, he attended New York University School of Law (NYU), where he earned a J.D. in 1996.
After graduating from law school, Foxx worked
at a law firm in Charlotte, clerked for an Appeals Court Judge in Cincinnati,
worked for the United States Department of Justice, the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, and in 2004, he served as campaign manager for Representative Mel Watt.
In the process of honing his own political chops, Foxx
ran for and was elected to the Charlotte City Council in 2005, and re-elected
in 2007. In 2009 he upped his game,
running for and winning election at Charlotte’s Mayor, a post he was re-elected
to in 2011.
President Obama announced in April; 2013 that he would
nominate Mr. Fox as Secretary of Transportation. Subsequently, June 27, the Senate confirmed
Foxx’s nomination to the post by a vote of 100-0. He resigned as Charlotte’s
Mayor and accepted the position. As an aside, Foxx served as the designated survivor during the 2015 State of the Union Address, January 20, 2015. Fox and his wife Samara, also an attorney, have
two children, Hillary and Zachary.
Foxx, like other members of the Obama Cabinet
wrapped up his official duties by noon last Friday. As the Secretary prepared
to hit the road, figuratively, he initiated a parting gesture designed to pay
homage to two North Carolinians who gained notoriety as civil rights icons. He
signed proclamations sometime last week, asking the NC Department of
Transportation to designate portions of I-85 in Mecklenburg (where the City of Charlotte
is located) and Durham (where the City of Durham is located) Counties be
re-named the Julius Chambers Memorial Highway, and the John Hope Franklin
Memorial Highway, respectively.
The process is not yet complete, but it’s
anticipated that it will likely go through.
Secretary Foxx admitted:
“These kind of
recognitions are rare, and they probably should be. But they are important
symbolic statements about the history of the state and the various
personalities who’ve animated the state’s history.
Frankly, there
are not a ton of examples of African-Americans who have been recognized, and
these two are two of the very best who graced us with their presence in North
Carolina.”
When contacted
to discuss the proposal, NC Governor Roy Cooper endorsed proclamation. He said in a statement:
“John Hope
Franklin and Julius Chambers were men of great vision and purpose who gave so
much to North Carolina, and this would be a fitting way for our state to honor
them.”
Attorney Julius
Chambers played a substantial role in school desegregation. Secretary Foxx praised him for:
Advancing “the
rights of minorities and low income people through his tireless advocacy in the
forms of litigation, scholarly research, and grass-roots activism and enhanced
racial equality throughout the nation and from his home state of North
Carolina.”
He also extolled
Franklin, a renowned academic and historian, and his work, saying:
He elevated “the
cause of civil rights and the study of black history in the United States” and
weaving “into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks
so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly.”
After signing
the proclamations one of the next steps Foxx took was to apprise relatives of
the two icons. Franklin’s son John Whittington Franklin found about the honor
via a text message Saturday morning. An employee of the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, he
expressed surprise. He further indicated
he was pleased, and that he thanked Foxx.
Chamber’s son
Derrick indicated he’d learned about the proclamations Thursday, Foxx’s last
full day as transportation secretary. A
Charlotte resident, Derrick described it as a great honor. He added:
“I feel it’s
long overdue for someone who made history. I look back at all the work that my
father did in my lifetime and I’m proud that he is not forgotten.”
Chambers died in
2013 at age 76. Over the course of his career he was involved as counsel in a
number of celebrated cases as the lead partner in the Chambers Stein, Ferguson,
and Atkins Law Firm in Charlotte, North Carolina’s first integrated law firm. Among
the cases he took challenging discrimination in education, employment, and
government, including Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. The
1971 Supreme Court decision that arose from that case was pivotal in making
busing a viable option for implementing school desegregation plans. During the
most intense years of the civil rights movement, Chambers car was dynamited,
his house was firebombed, and his office was torched. He later served as Director-Counsel for the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1984-1993).
Chambers enrolled at North Carolina Central University in 1954. He was the president of the
student body at NCCU and graduated summa cum laude with an undergraduate degree in history in 1958. He earned a graduate degree in history from the University of Michigan. In 1959, Chambers entered law school
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the first African American editor-in-chief of the school's law review and
graduated first in his class of 100 students in 1962. Chambers also became the
first African American to gain membership in the Order of the Golden Fleece, the University's highest honorary
society. In 1964, he earned his LL.M. from Columbia University Law School.
Franklin died in
2009 at the age of 94. He was a renowned African-American history scholar. In
1947, he authored “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans,”
which is regarded as a seminal work on African-American history.
He served as
legal researcher for the NAACP legal defense fund’s work on Brown v. Board of
Education, a landmark Supreme Court case that led to desegregation of schools
nationwide.
Franklin taught
at a number of institutions, including North Carolina Central University and
Duke University, both in Durham, NC. At Duke, he was a professor of history and
a legal history professor at its law school. He was the first African-American
to head the American Historical Association.
Then-President Clinton
awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. Two years later,
Clinton tapped Franklin to lead the President’s Initiative on Race, a panel
that was created to foster a national dialogue on the sensitive subject of race
relations.
While it’s
likely the highways will be renamed, Secretary Foxx’s actions don’t mean that
Chambers and Franklin highway signs will go up soon. Applications must be filed
with NCDOT requesting the changes must be filed, and a good deal of
coordination must still take place. It is actually conceivable that the road in
Mecklenburg County that ultimately bears Chambers’ name could be I-77 rather
than I-85, because there are several names already in the pipeline.
I am delighted
to join Secretary Foxx in saluting these two amazing men, both of whom share an
amazing legacy that include membership in one of my favorite organizations,
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Meanwhile, Mr. Foxx Exits: But NotBefore Kicking Off One Final Highway Project!
I’m done; holla back!
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