Dear Editor,

J.L. Chestnut Jr. was a voice for the people. He served as an attorney, family man, for his church, the Selma Community, the Black Belt counties and most particularly for the Black Farmers’ Initiative.

He was tapped to serve as an assistant criminal lawyer on national cases.

J.L. became an attorney in 1958 with three other classmates after graduating from Howard University.

He was a leader for blacks in the legal field in Alabama. He founded the law firm, Chestnut, Sanders, Sanders and Pettaway. Through the 1990’s, this was the largest black firm in the state.

J.L. loved jazz and playing the saxophone. Every year, he and his wife Vivian would travel to the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Attorney Chestnut’s book, “Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut, Jr.” is a riveting autobiography co-authored by Julia Cass.

J.L. received his undergraduate degree from Dillard University in New Orleans in 1953, prepared arguments in Brown v. Board of Education in 1958 and passed the Bar and returned to Selma.

In 1960, he was a key legal figure in the civil rights battles in Selma and worked with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund through out the Black Belt with other attorneys.

He was instrumental in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, laid the groundwork for the march led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery March 21-25, 1965.

In 1985, Mr. Chestnut and Sanders obtained a license from the Federal Communications Commission and built Selma’s first black radio station.

In 2000, he won the law suite that gave nearly $1 billion in reparations to black farmers, Pigford vs. Gilckman. Tim Pigford was a black farmer in North Carolina, and he wrote a newspaper article, “The Cold Hard Truth,” for the Greene County Democratic.

J.L. had many local lawyers who studied under him. He was an advocate for black people, getting them to vote, getting them on juries, desegregating the schools and he wants us all to remember that in Selma blood was shed for us to make a better life for ourselves.

Louretta C. Wimberly

Selma