Benjamin Spaulding Jr.

News Obituary Article

Benjamin Spaulding Jr., fought for justice

By DERRICK HENRY

Benjamin W. Spaulding Jr., a child of the civil rights movement, became an attorney for one overriding reason.

"Ben saw racism and inequities, and he wanted to help the plight of blacks," said his wife, Joyce Slappey Spaulding of Atlanta.

"He had an uncompromising integrity and devotion to principles that went beyond what was practical or politically expedient," said attorney Gregory Coleman of Atlanta, who worked with Mr. Spaulding at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society in the early 1970s.

"If a cause was worthy, he would take a client who was penniless and represent him with all the zeal of a client with a million dollars to pay him."

Benjamin Warren Spaulding Jr., 61, of Atlanta died Sunday of a heart attack while helping his daughter, Cheryl Lynn Spaulding, move into her living quarters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The funeral is 11 a.m. today at Hoosier United Methodist Church. Carl M. Williams Funeral Directors is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Spaulding earned his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1971 and headed to Atlanta because "it was the seat of the civil rights struggle and he wanted to be part of it," his wife said.

He immediately found work with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. After about a year there, he moved on to the Atlanta Regional Commission before entering private practice. His focus was litigation and civil rights, his wife said.

Mr. Spaulding was the attorney for the Atlanta NAACP during the controversial "Atlanta Compromise" of 1973, in which blacks gained control of the school system in exchange for an agreement to oppose mandatory busing to desegregate the schools.

As legal counsel for the Afro-American Patrolman League in the mid-1970s, Mr. Spaulding fought for fair promotion practices for black policemen. He worked for the Atlanta Housing Authority as a deputy director in the late 1970s, his wife said.

During the 1980s, Mr. Spaulding tried his hand running his own office supply store. But the practice of law was too compelling. A new phase of his career began in 1991, after Mayor Maynard Jackson appointed him a pro hac vice judge in the Atlanta Municipal Court. When regular judges were ill or on vacation, Mr. Spaulding would fill in. Around 1996, he was appointed a magistrate judge to assist Fulton County Superior Court judges.

At first he was assigned to domestic relationship cases. Impressed with his work, Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Isaac Jenrette invited Mr. Spaulding to assist him on the newly formed Fulton County drug court.

"He was very diligent and very helpful in every kind of way," said Mr. Jenrette, now a senior judge. "He was a very knowledgeable attorney who had defended cases against me when I was a prosecutor, and he had so much empathy for people in need."

Serving on the drug court ranked among the most satisfying experiences of Mr. Spaulding's career, his wife said, because the program helped nonviolent drug offenders turn their lives around through treatment, counseling and job placement.

At Bethel United Methodist Church, Mr. Spaulding and his son Benjamin W. Spaulding III of Atlanta took care of all the church's audiovisual needs. Mr. Spaulding also videotaped the church's drama productions and sang tenor in the men's choir.

Additional survivors include two sisters, Gloria S. Hall of Porthee, Mich., and Bobra S. Askew of Douglasville; and a brother, William L. Spaulding of Sunnyside, N.Y.

© 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution