Vernon Crawford was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1919, and graduated from the Allen Institute. During World War II he served as a merchant seaman and in 1951 graduated from Alabama State with a bachelor of science. Crawford attended the Brooklyn Law School, from where he earned a law degree in 1956. Some of the more important law suits originated by Crawford include L.B. Sullivan v. New York Times, State of Alabama v. Willie Seals, Bolden v. City of Mobile, Birdie Mae Davis v. Mobile County School Board, and Broughton v. City of Mobile. Crawford, while working pro bono for a white Kilby [Montgomery, Alabama] prison inmate, won the first writ of coram nobis [a writ error] in the history of Mobile County, Alabama, and one of the very first in the state of Alabama. In 1985, Crawford was among several African Americans who campaigned for a seat on the city council. Among Crawford's law partners over the years were A.J. Cooper, former mayor of Prichard, Alabama; Michael Figures, former Alabama state senator; Cain Kennedy, Mobile County Circuit Court judge; and David Coar, current U.S. District Court Judge. Crawford was a member of the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Southwest Bar Association, the Alabama Bar Association, the YMCA, the Utopia Club, the Strikers' Social Club, and was active in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
From the description of Legal records, 1956-1985. (University of South Alabama). WorldCat record id: 69368629
