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Hall of Fame 2023: Carl Maxey `42

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The late Spokane civil rights icon was a 1942 graduate of Gonzaga Prep who excelled in both academics and athletics. Maxey's induction recognizes his lasting impact as a civil rights leader and activist and lifetime of work as a trial attorney.

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call Maxie will forever be known as the first black person from Spokane to pass the Washington State bar exam by the time of his death he was one of the best-known lawyers in America wrote had call Messi live only to pass the bar examination his life would have been missing enough going to a single mother in Tacoma Washington he was given up for adoption sent to Spokane call ended up in the Spokane Children's Home Orphanage and his adoptive father disappeared and his mother died when car was 12 the homeboy decided it would no longer care for African American children and he was placed in the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center years later he wrote so if you're wondering where some of my fire come it comes from a memory that includes this event he went to school in the day and go to jail at night recall his widow Marylou Maxi at show-and-tell in school he used to say was it as a team he was placed in the Sacred Heart Indian Mission operated by the Jesuits in this month Idaho matching return to Spokane and attended Gonzaga Prep where he lettered football basketball track and graduated in 1942 during World War II crossword as a medic in the Army only to come home to find that the bars in Spokane wouldn't serve him even in uniform after the war he attended the University of Oregon and Gonzaga University becoming a pleated boxer stand undefeated in Collegian boxing all tried out for the 1948 Olympic boxing team but lost his first bout three years later he won the ncaaa light heavyweight boxing championship by defeating the captain of the 1948 Olympic team in 1951, became the first African American to graduate from Gonzaga law school to practice law in Spokane he was active in the Civil Rights Movement for the start of his practice in 1960 for travel to Mississippi with two other attorneys to join the fight after three civil rights workers with murder call later call his time in Mississippi one of the finest episodes in his life it was you said the first time both black and white work together hand-in-hand as a matter humanitarian concern the right to vote and the right to live known as agree on Turney and persuasive orator call handle many controversial and high-profile places throughout his career he defended conscientious objectives and was convinced Washington governor not to sign up prison escapee back to Georgia where he was facing execution upon his death a statement was read it would be his hope that all of us as individuals will do our parts to stand up against Injustice and oppression years after he passed I was honored as the namesake of the call maxy center a black lab and black center nonprofit based in Spokane East Central neighborhood that serves as a culture Gathering Place addressing the needs of Spokane African American black Community Helping to transform it from the inside out what better Legacy for an altar who became a giant in sports civil rights the law politics and who will forever be known as an unrelenting champion of the underdog my great honor to welcome the one and only call Maxie to the Gonzaga Prep Hall of Fame

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Hall of Fame 2023: Carl Maxey `42

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