Charles T. Lester oral history interview, April 29, 2002

Interviewed by Cliff Kuhn. Among topics discussed: Childhood in Decatur, Georgia, around Emory University where his father was a professor; Jack and Ruth Boozer; Brown v. Board of Education and integration of Emory University; Ruth Boozer, Lester's mother, and Women's International League of Peace and Freedom; Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr.; Mrs. Benjamin Mays; Mrs. Stamps Manley, wife of Spelman College president; John Griffin; James Mackay and Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church; Emory University Law School's requirement to participate with Atlanta Legal Aid Society; introduction to Legal Aid; South Side Saturday Lawyers Program and Michael Terry; description of Saturday Program; case of Mrs. Freeman and Atlanta Municipal Market near Grady Hospital and Georgia State University; overlap between Atlanta Legal Aid and Georgia Indigent Legal Services; Lester's transition from Atlanta Legal Aid to Georgia Legal Services; John Cromartie and University of Georgia Law School; membership in Phi Alpha Theta fraternity; Legal Aid loses funding; attacks on Legal Aid by Republicans in Congress, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan; Jimmy Carter; challenges to the program; Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers and support of Georgia Legal Services; Linda Kline as president of the Bar; domestic violence; Georgia Bar Foundation; Interest on Lawyer Trust Account (IOLTA); function of IOLTA; John Chandler; Judge Marvin Shoob; Metropolitan Atlanta area; issues concerning size and diversity of state; American Bar Association (ABA); size of Georgia Legal Services; restrictions of Congress on legal services; Savannah lawyer Joe Bergen's opposition to Legal Aid; Mike Doyle; Betty Kehrer; Younger Lawyers Section; Bucky Askew; Martin Huddleston; Askew and Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), National Legal Aid and Defenders Association (NLADA), Legal Services Corporation; Ben Shapiro; Jim Elliott; Bill Ide; Andy Sheldon; Emory Clinic; Bill Brennan; Betsey Neely, University of Virginia Law School, Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship (Reggie); Randolph Thrower; Baxter Jones; Judy O'Brien; Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF); Fulton County; Charlie Carnes; Morris Slattery; Wendy Glassburner; Bonnie Miller; Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, and Garden Springs Mobile Home Park case; Phyllis Holmen and a minority community outside Griffin, Spalding County, sewer service.