Charles Goode Gomillion - Tuskegee, AL
Posted by: hoteltwo
N 32° 25.258 W 085° 42.622
16S E 621257 N 3587829
Located at the former home of Charles Gomillion on Bibb St. this marker recognizes his Supreme Court case that led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Waymark Code: WM11CT6
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 09/29/2019
Views: 3
Marker text:
Charles Goode Gomillion (1900-1995) was born on April 1, 1900, in Johnston, South Carolina. He joined the faculty at Tuskegee University in 1928, where he served as dean of students and chair of the social sciences department. He was president of the Tuskegee Civic Association when in 1957 he found out that members of the all-white city council were seeking to gerrymander the city limits in order to disenfranchise black votes. Gomillion and others alleged that the act violated the "due process" and "equal protection" clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The subsequent litigation, C. G. Gomillion, et.al. v. Phil M. Lightfoot, resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision on November 14, 1960, siding with Gomillion. This case prohibited states from passing laws depriving citizens of the right to vote and was instrumental in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Gomillion retired from Tuskegee University in 1970 and died in Montgomery, Alabama.
Marker Name: Charles Goode Gomillion
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information:: Erected by the City Of Tuskegee, Tuskegee University, Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
Part of the Tuskegee Civil Rights and Historic Trail.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 2019
Marker Number: 2
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Visit Instructions:
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