Taking Charge in North Carolina

This chapter describes the role of Chambers's law practice and law firm as a locus and focal point of the African American struggle for racial equality in North Carolina from the mid-1960s onward. Chambers and the firm were well known to African Americans in every corner of the state, and Chambers provided legal representation, mostly free of charge, to civil rights demonstrators and activists of every persuasion and mode of protest while also advancing the interests of black citizens in other ways. In 1968, James Ferguson managed Rev. Dr. Reginald Hawkins's gubernatorial campaign, designed to energize the state's newly enfranchised black electorate. Ferguson and Adam Stein represented and insurgent, racially-mixed delegation from North Carolina at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Stein assisted striking black cafeteria workers at UNC-Chapel Hill, adroitly securing most of their goals despite a highly-charged political atmosphere. Ferguson convinced a disciplinary panel at Duke University to forego punishment of black students who had occupied the administration building. Working ceaselessly, Chambers and his partners encountered racist judges, endured the occasional missed paycheck, but kept on, persuaded that their work was essential to the goal of full black equality.