A former Youth Council president of the NAACP, Law had already organized a series of boycotts beginning in 1960, which ended in the desegregation of Savannah’s public accommodations. Law temporarily lost his job as a mail carrier during that campaign, when the local congressman pushed misconduct charges against him. The White House, pressed by the national NAACP leadership, reviewed the case and President John F. Kennedy ordered Law reinstated, instructing Postmaster General Edward Day to issue an apology.
In July 1963, Law led a delegation of black Savannahians in closed-door negotiations with prominent white bankers and businessmen, successfully negotiating desegregation of the city’s hotels, motels and restaurants. The meetings began after weeks of peaceful marches and demonstrations had begun to give way to intermittent violence and growing tension. Fearing the situation would deteriorate into Birmingham-like chaos, Law talked a potentially violent crowd into dispersing and called off the marches, then turned his legendary hard-headed fearlessness to his advantage at the negotiating table. Five months later, when he was finally invited by Law and other black leaders to visit Savannah, King declared it “the most integrated city south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”
Law died last week at 79.
