Charles Morgan Jr., civil rights-era lawyer for Bond, Ali

By Kendal Weaver, Associated Press

Published January 9, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Charles Morgan Jr., a civil rights-era lawyer from Alabama who represented Julian Bond and Muhammad Ali and argued for the "one man, one vote" principle that redrew political maps, died Thursday. He was 78.

Family members said Mr. Morgan, known as Chuck, died at his home in Destin, Fla., of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

A native of Birmingham who fought that city's segregationist leaders in the early 1960s, Morgan opened the American Civil Liberties Union's Southern Regional office in Atlanta in 1964 and became legislative director of the ACLU's national office in Washington, D.C., in 1972.

In an Alabama reapportionment case known as Reynolds vs. Sims, he won a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that required voting districts to be equal in population, a blow to the political power of rural legislators who until then dominated the statehouse.

"It ended gerrymandering," said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery. "It became a bedrock principle for voting rights. It changed the complexion of the South and the country."

The case was one of a handful that made the "one man, one vote" principle part of federal law and protected the political voice of voters in growing urban centers.

"Chuck was a true giant of the legal profession," said Cohen. "He was relentless in his pursuit of our Constitution. He was also an incredibly brave man and eloquent man."

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