Civil rights leader John L. Cashin Jr. dies at 82

[alp227]

John L. Cashin Jr., a dentist and civil rights leader who in 1970 became the first African American to run for Alabama governor since Reconstruction, died March 21 of acute renal failure at the Specialty Hospital of Washington-Hadley in the District. He was 82.

His opponent in the 1970 race was former governor George C. Wallace, a hard-line segregationist who in 1963 had tried to block two black students from enrolling at the previously all-white University of Alabama.

Dr. Cashin lost to Wallace in a landslide, winning about 15 percent of the vote. Wallace went on to serve a total of four terms as Alabama governor and eventually renounced his anti-civil rights views.

Though Dr. Cashin didn’t hold office, his political and legal wrangling in the 1960s and 1970s helped usher a wave of black candidates into office.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/civil_rights_leader_john_l_cashin_jr_dies_at_82/2011/03/27/AFQNxnlB_story.html

[Norrin Radd]

1. RIP

[midnight]

2. Can you imagine that the man who helped drop lit from

a plane he piloted that resulted in the fire storm of black people being elected ,would then start having problems with making money and the law... just shocking.... Thank you Dr. Cashin

[Mnemosyne]

3. Thank you, Dr. Cashin. RIP. n/t