A noted civil rights lawyer passed away last week. When he was fresh out of college, he fought to end Jim Crow laws in Kansas. His law firm was attacked by the racists there, having his windows shot out by people while being called a “niggar-lover”.
In other cases, he also sued President Ronald Reagan for appointing an ambassador to the Vatican, citing separation of church and state. He also received awards for his representation of black clients in Kansas.
In 1988, he supported Al Gore in the Democratic Presidential primary. He also ran for governor three times in the Democratic primary in Kansas as well as once for the Senate.
He was also known to have been a huge opponent to the Iraq War. He had his followers protest the funerals of fallen veterans for doing what he viewed was evil in the name of the United States.
That civil rights leader was, of course, the late Fred Phelps, Sr., founder of Westboro Baptist Church.