Julius Chambers Emerges

This chapter recounts Julius Chambers's achievements during college, graduate school, and law school. After graduating summa cum laude from North Carolina College for Negroes and obtaining his masters degree in history at the University of Michigan, Chambers was admitted to the University of North Carolina School of Law, desegregated the prior decade by federal court order over the forceful objections of University and North Carolina officials. Chambers, despite being ranked 112th among the 114 students admitted to the Class of 1962 and notwithstanding a generally unwelcoming, often hostile atmosphere at the Law School and on campus, became editor-in-chief of the Law Review and graduated first in his class. This chapter also details Chambers's marriage to Vivian Giles and the couple's decision to move to New York City when, after no North Carolina law firm would grant Chambers a job interview, Columbia Law School quickly stepped forward with the offer of a one-year fellowship.