Renaming of Shelby Country Courthouse in Honor of Judge D’Army Bailey

All are invited to attend the renaming of the Shelby County Courthouse in honor of Judge D’Army Bailey on Friday, September 25 at 1:00 p.m. The event will be held at the Shelby County Courthouse located at 140 Adams Ave. This historic event honoring the late Judge Bailey will surely draw strong support from the Memphis legal community and our law school. Judge Bailey was a longtime friend and involved supporter of the law school and his presence is, and will be, greatly missed both on the bench and in the Memphis community.

D’Army Bailey was an activist, politician, attorney, writer, columnist, public servant and jurist. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1967, Judge Bailey served as national director of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council in New York from 1967 to 1968 and then as staff attorney to the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation from 1968 to 1970. From 1970 to 1971, he was program adviser to the Field Foundation in New York. Elected to the City Council in Berkeley, California, in 1971, he was ousted in a recall election after two years because of his controversial positions. Judge Bailey returned to his hometown of Memphis and practiced law from 1974 to 1990.

In 1983, he began his fight to preserve the Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Finally, after years of fundraising, Judge Bailey’s vision was realized in 1991 when the Lorraine Motel building was restored and transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum.

Judge Bailey was elected to the Circuit Court in Tennessee’s 30th Judicial District in 1990. Reelected in 1998 and 2006, Judge Bailey retired from the bench in 2009 and returned to private practice. In 2014, Judge Bailey was again elected to the Circuit Court, where he served until his passing on July 12, 2015. At the time of his death he lived here in Memphis with his wife, Adrienne, and two sons, Justin and Merritt.

A testament to Judge Bailey’s many accomplishments, President William Jefferson Clinton delivered the eulogy at Judge Bailey’s funeral in July.