NASHVILLE, Tenn. — George Barrett, a longtime Tennessee civil rights lawyer known for handling a case that ultimately desegregated the state’s public colleges and universities, has died. He was 86.
Barrett died Tuesday at a hospital, several partners of his Nashville-based law firm told The Associated Press.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Barrett not only handled numerous civil rights cases, he also represented corporate whistleblowers, fought for labor rights and tackled securities fraud, his partners said.
He is perhaps best known as the attorney who filed a lawsuit in 1968 for then-Tennessee State University instructor Rita Geier, who accused the state of operating a dual system of higher education for minorities.
Geier, then 23, filed the lawsuit over the University of Tennessee’s plans to develop a Nashville campus. She feared UT-Nashville would become a predominantly White school and that historically Black Tennessee State would suffer. The case dragged on for 38 years, and the state ultimately agreed to provide millions of dollars to diversify public colleges and universities.
Douglas Johnston Jr., a founding partner alongside Barrett at the Nashville-based firm Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison, said Barrett was a giant of the Civil Rights Movement “long before civil rights was something to be proud of,” in an era when civil rights workers often feared for their lives.
Barrett’s heritage growing up in a working-class, Irish-Catholic family drove his desire to work for the civil rights cause, Johnston said.
