Cause of death Natural causes Name Orzell Billingsley | Nationality United States Role Lawyer | |
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Born October 24, 1924 Birmingham, Alabama Known for One of the first ten blacks to be admitted to the Alabama State Bar Died December 14, 2001, Birmingham, Alabama, United States Education Talladega College, Howard University, A. H. Parker High School | ||
Orzell Billingsley (October 24, 1924 – December 14, 2001) became one of the first ten blacks admitted to the Alabama Bar after attending Talladega College and Howard University.
His law practice was deeply involved with civil rights litigation, and he was one of the lead lawyers for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Billingsley served as General Counsel for the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA) and was a delegate for the NDPA at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in 1968. Billingsley helped to incorporate more than 20 small towns in Alabama that had majority black populations. He was well known for his 15-year defense of Caliph Washington who was falsely accused of killing a white officer; it was this case that helped to end all-white juries in Alabama. Billingsley was arrested for "acting as an agent of a foreign corporation," when he filed a deed on behalf of the Nation of Islam to secure farmland in Alabama. Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were known to call on Billingsley regarding the turbulence in Alabama. Billingsley was a founding member of the Alabama Lawyers Association.
He was known as the “black Patrick Henry of Alabama.”