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Elbert Parr Tuttle (1897-1996) Attorney for the Defense: Fulton County Board of Education

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Elbert Parr Tuttle (1897-1996) Attorney for the Defense: Fulton County Board of Education Elbert Parr Tuttle (1897-1996) Attorney for the Defense: Fulton County Board of Education n 1928, Atlanta attorney Cam Dorsey had the fortune of working on a case with a bright young lawyer named El- bert Parr Tuttle. Dorsey, brother to former Georgia gover- nor Hugh Dorsey, was also a member of the Fulton Coun- I ty Board of Education, which coincidentally was search- ing for new counsel. Dorsey was so impressed with Tuttle, he im- mediately recommended him for the job. Tuttle was born in California in 1897, but spent most of his childhood in Hawaii, where his father worked in the sugar busi- ness. Tuttle attended Punahou Academy alongside a great many native Hawaiians and so grew to appreciate diversity—a quality which would serve him throughout his illustrious career—one that began the moment he and his family made their home in Elbert Parr Tuttle, 1949., Georgia State University Archives Atlanta. Most of Tuttle’s notoriety, however, comes for what he accomplished after his term as the school system’s counsel. As a member of the National Guard, he was called up during World War II, and served as Lt. Colonel of an artillery battalion in the South Pacific, where he was wounded in hand-to-hand combat. Upon his return home, he would become instrumental in building the Republican Party in Georgia, which had for generations been a one-party state; and like Helen Mankin, he worked to abolish the county unit system in elections. As an attorney, Tuttle mostly represented clients in civil liberties-related cases, which put him in direct contact with the rights of labor and racial equality and occasionally found him in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Riding this wave of notoriety and belief in his communi- ty, Tuttle served a term as president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and sat on the boards of trustees of Atlanta University and Morehouse College. Tuttle moved among the highest circles of Atlanta society in the mid-twentieth century and counted among his ac- quaintances Atlanta Constitution publisher Ralph McGill, Coca-Cola CEO Robert Woodruff, Mayor Ivan Allen and legendary golfer Bobby Jones. What Elbert Tuttle will be best known for, however, is his term as a judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Appointed to the position in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tut- tle sat on a panel of judges that would be charged with enforcing the decision of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, which effectively ruled segregation unconstitutional. Since the 5th Circuit included not only Georgia, but also Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Loui- siana and Texas, Tuttle would play a crucial role in many of the cases and events that shaped the modern Civil Rights Movement in the South. From his bench, he would support the rights of Charlayne Hunter and Ham- ilton Holmes to attend the University of Georgia (1961) in a time when the school was off limits to African Americans. Dur- ing the Albany Movement (1961-62), Tut- tle upheld the rights of demonstrators there. In 1980, the attorney who earned his first retainer of $25.00 from the Fulton County From the Fulton County Schools Board Minutes, Aug. 31, Board of Education, was awarded the 1937, Tuttle is asked to represent the board as news of Presidential Medal of Freedom from fellow Long’s case is announced. FCS Archives: 1937.brec.37-1063 Georgian Jimmy Carter. .
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