Frank R. Parker
Civil rights lawyer
Died when: 57 years 60 days (685 months)Star Sign: Taurus
Frank Ruff Parker III (May 11, 1940 – July 10, 1997) was an American civil rights lawyer and voting rights activist.Beginning in 1981, while working for The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, he directed the , where he helped secure from the United States Congress a 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
During his 12 years as Director of the Voting Rights Project, he launched a program to enforce the guarantees of the Voting Rights Act on a nationwide level through litigation and public education, and was a leader in the five-year struggle to enact the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
In 1990, he authored an award-winning book on the impact of the Voting Rights Act in Mississippi, Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi After 1965.