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September 4: William Kunstler
Activist attorney William Kunstler, a co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights, died on this date in 1995 at the age of 76. Kunstler’s most significant cases included his defense of the Freedom Riders in 1961, of the Chicago Eight (1969-70), and of such radical groups as the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground, the American Indian Movement, and the prisoners who survived Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s suppression of the uprising at Attica Prison. Among his other clients were H. Rap Brown, Lenny Bruce, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Assata Shakur, and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. “I only defend those whose goals I share,” Kunstler said. “I’m not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love.”
“When we talk about justice in America we’re really talking about justice brought about by the people, not by judges who are tools of the establishment or prosecutors who are are equally tools of the establishment or the wardens or the police officers.” -William Kunstler
Watch the trailer for Disturbing the Universe, the documentary about William Kuntsler made by his daughters, Emily and Sara:
