Portrait of civil rights attorney acquired by The Smithsonian

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An oil portrait painted from life of Attorney Fred Gray, by artist Michael Shane Neal, has been acquired by The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. for its permanent collection.& The portrait was commissioned by “Friends of Fred Gray,” a group of donors who believed in the historical significance of a painting of Gray and its inclusion in the museum’s collection to educate future generations on his work for the Civil Rights Movement throughout his lifetime. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Gray is a nationally-recognized Civil Rights attorney, celebrated lecturer, successful author, minister, and former legislator. With a legal career that has spanned more than half a century, Gray’s landmark Civil Rights cases include representing Mrs. Rosa Parks who was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott and representing the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, successfully arguing the case at the United States Supreme Court.& Gray was also Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first Civil Rights attorney. President Joe Biden awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Gray during a ceremony in the East Room of...