There never will be another like J.L. Chestnut

J. L. Chestnut, Perry Varner, Joe Smitherman


Column by Al Benn

SELMA -- A worried young man rushed up to J.L. Chestnut at the Dallas County Courthouse.

"Mr. Chestnut, are you my lawyer?" he asked.

"I don't know," Chestnut responded. "What's your name and what do they say you did?"

After the kid told him, Chestnut looked at me and, in an instant, turned to him and said: "Go on into the courtroom. I'll handle it."

A few minutes later, the young man walked out beaming after the judge dropped the charges. It took about five minutes.

Chestnut, or "Ches," as many of us called him, had worked his magic once more and it didn't surprise anyone.

His death earlier this week at the age of 77 followed a lingering illness. He'll be laid to rest Wednesday in Selma. His church will be packed.

A man with a brilliant mind who wasn't afraid to admit it from time to time, Ches was much more than a trial lawyer.

His rapier wit could have made him a good stand-up comedian, one with an edge -- much like Lenny Bruce way back when or Chris Rock today.

His writing was superb and his autobiography did well when it was published several years ago.

During his nationwide tour to sell "Black In Selma," Ches got one of his biggest thrills and it wasn't in a courtroom.

"I got to speak with Johnny Carson," he told me, excitedly, after he got back home. "It's something I'll never forget."

Ches must have felt he missed his calling because he could play a mean sax. No doubt, he would have preferred a life playing with the best jazz musicians in New Orleans.

The two of us had an ambivalent relationship. He'd crack jokes with me one minute and then pop it to me the next.

I often wrote favorable articles about Ches after watching him do his thing in courtrooms across the Black Belt, but an in-depth report on how the Alabama Bar Association disciplines its members sent him through the roof.

One of his law partners had been called on the carpet after complaints about her, and he wrote me a blistering letter to let me know just how he felt.

His first paragraph began: "If you ever write a page of scurrilous deliberately unbalanced crap about my black wife to satisfy a bunch of low-life white racist rednecks in Alabama I will find a thousand ways to fix your ass good, election or no election."

It went downhill from there.

What Ches didn't know when he wrote his angry letter was that it would, on Feb. 26, 1992, be reprinted -- in full -- on the editorial page of the Montgomery Advertiser under the headline "Attorney Says Story Scurrilous."

If he was upset when he wrote "The Letter," as it became known around the state in newspapers and on radio talk shows, he went ballistic when he saw it printed in Capital City's paper.

Our relationship improved as the years passed and the mutual respect we had for each other almost got back to normal.

Race was a subject that he frequently discussed in his speeches, newspaper columns and on his radio talk show and he knew it would stir up his readers and listeners.

He believed a black person could never be a racist -- an assumption that drew the electric reaction he expected.

His favorite foil was Mayor Joe Smitherman, who served in city government for nearly 40 years. Joe gave as much as he got and what the public didn't know was the men shared a deep personal respect. Unknown to most people in Selma were the occasions Ches would quietly slip into the mayor's office and they'd have a grand old time talking about old times.

The memory that sticks out most for me was watching Ches parade back and forth in front of a jury, pontificating, preaching and pleading on behalf of his client.

He was at his best when he'd put down his big yellow notepad -- one scribbled with what he thought he needed to say -- and then just wing it. It beat anything Hollywood could ever concoct.

We'll never see the likes of another J.L. Chestnut in Alabama. He really did break the mold.

Alvin Benn writes about people and places in central and south Alabama. If you have suggestions for a story, contact him at 334-875-3249 or
e-mail him at benn8071@bellsouth.net.

*****

CHESTNUT, J. L. Jr. was born in Selma, Alabama to Geraldine Phillips Chestnut and J. L. Chestnut, Sr. on December 16, 1930. He departed this life on September 30, 2008. He graduated from Knox Academy in 1948, Dillard University in 1953, and Howard University Law School in 1958. He was drafted into the U. S. Army and served from 1954-1956. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. opened his law office in 1959, the first African American to do so in Selma. At the time, he was one of only nine black lawyers practicing in the State of Alabama. In 1972, he, Rose M. Sanders, and Hank Sanders formed the law firm of Chestnut, Sanders and Sanders, which grew into the largest Black law firm in Alabama and one of the ten largest in the country at one time. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. was senior partner. In 1963, J. L. Chestnut, Jr. helped Bernard Lafayette, the first full time civil rights worker in Selma, to persuade black Selmians to attend the first mass meetings which was a very dangerous undertaking at the time. That was the beginning of the "Selma Movement" which, along with other voting rights struggles, led to Bloody Sunday, the Selma to Montgomery March and passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. When Dr. Martin Luther King set up shop in Selma in 1964, he represented Dr. King and hundreds of demonstrators, including James Foreman, Dick Gregory, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowery and many others. He raised a key voice in the historic Selma Civil Rights battle. The national spotlight moved from Selma in the 1960's, but J. L. Chestnut stayed. He settled in for the longer and more difficult march of turning civil rights victories into lasting "grass roots" gains. In 1968, he initiated the case that won black people the right to sit on juries in Dallas County, Alabama for the first time in 100 years. He filed racial discrimination suits that won jobs for black people in City Hall and the county courthouse and positions on the Selma City Council and Selma City School Board. He filed the lawsuit that resulted in the first black principal of Selma High School after desegregation. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. defended more capital cases than any lawyer in Alabama and never lost a client to the electric chair. He was a NAACP lead counsel in implementing the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision in Alabama. He was a lead class counsel in the polybuthelene pipe case, which resulted in the largest class action settlement in Alabama history at the time. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. was class counsel in the Black farmers case. This national class action on behalf of more than 20,000 poor farmers against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) resulted in more than $1 billion being paid to poor black farmers. United States District Court Judge Paul Friedman, who presides over the case in Washington, D. C., quoted him seven times in the 67 page court decree approving the settlement with the government. As a spin-off of the Black farmer's case, J. L. Chestnut, Jr. helped organize similar litigation against USDA on behalf of Native Americans, Latinos and Women. He was also involved in class action litigation against major manufacturers of tobacco products. Over the past five decades, Mr. Chestnut has remained what he called "...a lawyer for the little and forgotten people of this world." His clients are often ordinary people up against something much larger and more powerful than they. He always stood with the least of these. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. was very proud of the many young lawyers he helped train and develop. Many have followed in his footsteps of service and standing with the least of these. From the ranks of his law firm have come two circuit court judges, one city judge, a state senator, a county commissioner and a city councilman. In 2003, Black Enterprise Magazine named him as one of the top 10 legal legends among Black lawyers in America. The widely read autobiography of J. L. Chestnut, Jr., Black in Selma, was published in 1990 and republished in 1992. He also co-authored a novel, "The Downing Round," which has not yet been published. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. is the recipient of numerous awards including an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from St. Michael College in Vermont. He served as the first board chair of the powerful Alabama New South Coalition, the second board chair of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and President of the Alabama Black Lawyers Association. He served on many other boards including the Board of Trustees of the University of South Alabama and the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science. Of the many positions he held, his favorite was chairman of the Board of Deacons at his beloved First Baptist Church. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. was a great communicator, speaking publicly across the country, writing a weekly column entitled "The Hard Cold Truth," and hosting the wildly popular Selma radio program, "Public Conversation." He spoke at a variety of forums including the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and appeared on ABC's "Good Morning, America," BET's "Lead Story," CBS "Nightlife," and numerous other television and radio programs. J. L. Chestnut, Jr. leaves to cherish his memories his beloved wife Vivian; six children - J. L., IV, Gerald (Louis), Vivian, Terrance (Sandra), Gregory (Angie), and Kim; eight grandchildren, Shawn, Shequitta, Danielle, Jay, J. L. III, Deaven, Phallen and Chase; three great grandchildren -Kirabo, Sehn-Rah, and Mea; one sister, Johnnie Mae Chestnut; and a host of relatives and friends including his paralegal/executive assistant of 37 years, Barnette R. Hayes.