Gray was at the epicenter of the civil rights movement. Alabama-born and a friend of Rosa Parks, he eventually served as her attorney during the Montgomery Bus Boycott when he was just 23 years old. He later served as Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights attorney.

As a young man denied access to a legal education in his own home state, Gray vowed "to become a lawyer, return to Alabama, and destroy everything segregated I could find." He proved a man of his word. Gray methodically plied his considerable legal talents to desegregating Alabama's public schools and higher education institutions and was largely successful. But he didn't rest his case there. Gray avenged his thirst for racial justice in all areas of Alabama society, going on the legal offensive against segregated restaurants, schools, housing authorities, professional associations, parks and recreation, jails, law enforcement officials and wherever vestiges of slavery and segregation existed.

Gray fought and won compensation for the men involved in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study and later served in the Alabama state legislature and as president of the National Bar Association. He was the first African American elected president of the Alabama Bar Association. Gray was the driving force in establishing the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center as a memorial to the syphilis study participants and to highlight contributions in human and civil rights.

"Fred Gray's visit is just a tremendous educational opportunity to the entire community," said Cal Walker, associate director of Cornell's Learning Strategies Center, who helped coordinate Gray's visit. "Here is a man who literally helped to shape civil rights history -- American history -- directly. ... Fifty years later, he's still a force."

Walker has an abiding connection to the legendary civil rights lawyer. Both men are natives of Tuskegee. More specifically, Walker's grandfather and great-grandfather were among the 623 men recruited for the Tuskegee syphilis study in 1932. Gray began representing the syphilis study participants in 1972. In 1974 he won an out-of-court settlement totaling $10 million and the government was later ordered to provide lifetime health care for study participants, as well as some family members. Today, members of Walker's family are among those who continue to receive compensatory medical benefits -- a direct result of Gray's legal work.

Walker recently visited Gray at the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee, Ala. Established largely through Gray's initiative, the memorial not only honors participants of the syphilis study, but educates the public on the contributions made in the field of human and civil rights by Native Americans, African Americans and Americans of European descent.

"I saw the memorial itself, which is made of beautiful multi-colored inlaid wood," said Walker. "The names of the 623 men who participated in the study -- including my grandfather and great-grandfather -- are detailed in the memorial itself."

For more information about this seminal figure in American civil rights and a list of his most notable cases, visit Gray's Web site at http://www.fredgray.net/index.html.

Gray's visit is sponsored by more than a dozen Cornell offices and programs and Ithaca organizations.