STATE: Julius Chambers honored by renamed Charlotte post office
Published 12:36 pm Monday, December 7, 2020
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A post office in North Carolina’s largest city is now renamed for a late civil rights attorney.
President Donald Trump signed into law a measure backed by North Carolina’s congressional delegation and designed to honor Julius Chambers, who died in 2013 at age 76.
Chambers, who was born and raised in Montgomery County, opened a law practice in 1964 that became the state’s first integrated law firm.
He and his law partners won many significant civil rights cases, including one over court-ordered busing in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 1971 cleared the way for the use of busing as a means of desegregation.
Chambers later served as chancellor of North Carolina Central University in Durham, his alma mater.
The law, signed by Trump late last week, renames a post office in northeast Charlotte the “Julius L. Chambers Civil Rights Memorial Post Office.” The location sits in the congressional district of Democratic Rep. Alma Adams, who was the resolution’s primary sponsor.