During his long and illustrious career, Charles Swinger Conley ’55 fought civil rights cases small and large, counseled movement leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, and eventually became Alabama’s first elected black judge.

Ellen Conley, pictured here, was her husband’s chauffeur and protector in the turbulent ’60s, especially when he worked at his office late into the night. “I’d always insist on getting out of the car first,” she says. “If a bullet was coming, it would get me. Chuck had important work to finish.”

To ensure that future graduates of Judge Conley’s alma mater would continue to have the chance to pursue their passions in civil rights and public interest law, the Conleys made provisions for a $1.2 million gift that endowed the Honorable Charles Swinger Conley Scholarship within the AnBryce Program and funded a permanent memorial at the Law School honoring his outstanding legal accomplishments and historic career. Ellen Conley has also named NYU School of Law as a beneficiary of her own estate.

“NYU Law gave my husband a chance to study the law, a chance he never would have had otherwise, and what he learned gave him the tools to fight for change. We both wanted to give back to the community that had really embraced us in the hopes that others would have similar transformational experiences.”

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