We are excited to announce the dedication of the J.L. Chestnut/Bruce Boynton Judicial
Building on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, at 12:00 noon at the Dallas County Courthouse
Annex located at 102 Church Street, Selma, Alabama 36701.
The Dallas County Commission has approved the renaming of the Dallas County
Courthouse Annex to the J.L. Chestnut/Bruce Boynton Judicial Building. Attorney J.L. Chestnut,
a graduate of Howard University School of Law, was Selma’s first African-American lawyer. He
was a fighter for voting rights for Blacks and a pioneer for Black lawyers in Alabama. Attorney
Bruce Boynton, also a graduate of Howard University School of Law, was one of the first of the
student “sit-inners” who protested racially segregated travel and counter facilities. After Attorney
Boynton’s arrest for the incident, Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960), was argued before
the U.S. Supreme Court and spawned the Freedom Riders, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, and
demonstrations by Blacks, which led to the passage of the 1964 Public Accommodation Act.
Please join the Dallas County Commissioners, the Alabama Lawyers Association, the
Alabama Lawyers Association Judicial Council, the Blackbelt Bar Association, the Selma/Dallas
County Bar Association, the Law Firm of Chestnut, Sanders and Sanders, Judge Jimmy Nunn,
Probate Judge of Dallas County, the Circuit Judges of the 4th Circuit and Retired Circuit Judge,
Judge England in the celebration of this historic dedication
