MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2022 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Frazier, Blount, Branning, Butler (38th), England, Hopson, Horhn, Norwood, Simmons (12th), Simmons (13th), Sparks, Thomas
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION COMMENDING AND CONGRATULATING FORMER MISSISSIPPI REPRESENTATIVE HONORABLE FRED L. BANKS, JR., ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RECEIPT OF THE PRESTIGIOUS "2021 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD" BY THE MISSISSIPPI BAR.
WHEREAS, we join The Mississippi Bar and the legal profession in honoring former Mississippi Representative Honorable Fred L. Banks, Jr., upon his receipt of the "2021 Lifetime Achievement Award" by The Mississippi Bar, recognizing his stellar legal and judicial career; and
WHEREAS, Fred Banks was born in Jackson, Mississippi, on September 1, 1942. He graduated from Lanier High School in Jackson in 1960. He earned his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also attended Howard's Law School, graduating cum laude and second in his class in 1968; and
WHEREAS, Fred's intrinsic sense of fairness is reflected throughout his legal career. After law school, he started a private practice in Jackson. The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund hired Fred to serve as its local counsel, along with Reuben Anderson, John Nichols, and Melvyn Leventhal; and
WHEREAS, that office became the firm Anderson, Banks, Nichols and Leventhal, the first interracial law firm in Mississippi history. Fred and his partners courageously fought segregation. They were instrumental in integrating public schools and public accommodations in Mississippi. Desegregation in Mississippi did not come easily. It was hard-fought, and Fred was instrumental in making it happen; and
WHEREAS, Fred and Reuben Anderson have been lifelong friends. As Reuben put it, "We started out together in the 5th grade, were baptized together, and served as altar boys together. Whatever grade we were in, Fred was always the smartest person in the class"; and
WHEREAS, throughout his career, Fred has fought injustice. He served as Town Attorney in Fayette, Mississippi, from 1970 to 1975, consulting attorney to the Mississippi Association of Educators and General Counsel to the Mississippi State Conference of NAACP Branches; and
WHEREAS, Fred sought elective office in the mid-1970s. In 1975, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives and won reelection twice. When Fred was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 1975, he joined Robert Clark as the first African-American legislator since Reconstruction. During his tenure, he served as Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Chairman of the House Judiciary "B" Committee, and Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. Fred fought to preserve records of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission; and
WHEREAS, on September 24, 1979, President Jimmy Carter added Fred to the nine-member National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. From 1979 - 1981, Fred served as a member of the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions; and
WHEREAS, Fred joined the judiciary in February 1985. He was appointed Judge of the Seventh Circuit Court District, which covered Hinds and Yazoo counties and won reelection twice, running unopposed both times. In January 1991, Governor Ray Maybus appointed Fred to fill an unexpired term on the Mississippi Supreme Court. He was elected to serve the rest of that term in November 1991 and reelected in November 1996; and
WHEREAS, Fred retired from the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2001. He joined the law firm of Phelps Dunbar, where he has continued his civil rights advocacy. As part of his legal practice, Fred has participated in school desegregation, housing and employment discrimination, voting rights and other civil rights cases, as well as appellate litigation, commercial litigation and alternate dispute resolution. He was recognized by Mississippi Business Journal as its inaugural "Leader in the Law" in 2010; and
WHEREAS, Fred's community involvement is substantial. He has served his state and nation in many other capacities. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Mississippi History. He also serves or has served on the National Board of Directors of the NAACP, the Board of Visitors at Mississippi College School of Law, the State Advisory Committee to the Commission on Civil Rights, the Democratic National Committee Commission on Presidential Elections, and on the Board of Directors of the Greater Jackson Community Foundation. He is a member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow in the Mississippi Bar Foundation, a member and former President of American Inns of Court, Charles Clark Inn, and the Mississippi, Magnolia, National and District of Columbia Bar Associations. He has also served on a number boards for community improvement activities, including Sanderson Farms and the Capital City Convention Center Commission; and
WHEREAS, in the fall of 1976, Fred was Co-Chairman of Jimmy Carter's Presidential Campaign in Mississippi, along with Danny Cupit. In a great bit of television theater, late into election night, it was Mississippi that put President Carter over the top in the electoral vote count. Fred crafted and nurtured the winning coalition for Carter in the state that year, the last time Democrats won a presidential election in Mississippi; and
WHEREAS, Honorable Fred Banks served as a leader and mentor. Fred consistently lectured on professional standards of the practice, including ethics, integrity, civility, courtesy and adherence to The Golden Rule. He advised his colleagues, "One only has so many points of personal privilege, use them wisely." Fred Bank's career has honored The Mississippi Bar, the Mississippi House of Representatives and this great state that he loves and serves:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby commend and congratulate former Mississippi Representative Honorable Fred L. Banks, Jr., on the occasion of his receipt of the prestigious "2021 Lifetime Achievement Award" by The Mississippi Bar and extend to him and his family our wishes for future success.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Honorable Fred Banks, forwarded to The Mississippi Bar and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and be made available to the Capitol Press Corps.