Editing Fred Phelps (section)

===Civil rights cases===

====Early civil rights career====
Phelps earned a law degree from [[Washburn University]] in 1964, and founded the Phelps Chartered law firm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps16.shtml|title=Phelps' Law Career Checkered|work=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal]]|access-date=December 10, 2012|last1=Taschler|first1=Joe|last2=Fry|first2=Steve|date=August 3, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101115350/http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps16.shtml|archive-date=January 1, 2013}}</ref> In 1969, upon a finding of professional misconduct, authorities suspended him from practicing as a lawyer for two years.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" />

Phelps' second notable cases were related to [[civil rights]], and his involvement in civil rights cases in and around Kansas gained him praise from local African-American leaders.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" />

"I systematically brought down the [[Jim Crow]] laws of this town", he claimed.<ref name="lauerman1999">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1999/03/man-who-loves-hate|title=The Man Who Loves To Hate|last=Lauerman|first=Kerry|date=March–April 1999|magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|access-date=December 10, 2012}}</ref> Phelps' daughter [[Shirley Phelps-Roper]]<!--which one??--> was quoted as saying, "We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we were nigger lovers." She added that the Phelps law firm made up one-third of the state's federal docket of civil rights cases.<ref name="ocweekly1999">{{cite news|first=Donna|last=Ladd|url=http://www.ocweekly.com/1999-09-16/news/a-love-hate-thing/|title=A Love/Hate Thing|newspaper=[[OC Weekly]]|publisher=[[Voice Media]]|location=Long Beach, California|date=September 9, 1999|access-date=December 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130235001/http://www.ocweekly.com/1999-09-16/news/a-love-hate-thing/|archive-date=November 30, 2012}}</ref>

Phelps took cases on behalf of African-American clients alleging [[racial discrimination]] by school systems, and a predominantly black [[American Legion]] post which had been raided by police, alleging racially based police abuse.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Swenson|first=Scott|title=Fred Phelps Returns: Judgment Day|journal=[[The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide]]|date=2010|volume=17|issue=5|url=http://www.glreview.com/article.php?articleid=256|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114172331/http://www.glreview.com/article.php?articleid=256|archive-date=January 14, 2012}}</ref> Phelps' law firm obtained settlements for some clients.<ref name="taschler1994">{{cite news|first1=Joe|last1=Taschler|first2=Steve|last2=Fry|title=As a lawyer, Phelps was good in court|date=August 3, 1994|newspaper=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal]]|url=http://www.cjonline.com:80/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps17.shtml|publisher=[[GateHouse Media]]|location=Topeka, Kansas|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030720111243/http://www.cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps17.shtml|archive-date=July 20, 2003|access-date=July 20, 2003}}</ref>

====''Johnson v. Topeka Board of Education'', et. al.====

Phelps' national notoriety first came from a 1973 lawsuit (settled in 1978) on behalf of a 10-year-old African-American plaintiff, Evelyn Renee Johnson (some sources say Evelyn ''Rene'' Johnson), against the [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]] Board of Education (which had, in 1954, famously lost the pivotal racial discrimination case of ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]],'' ending legal racial segregation in U.S. public schools), and against related local, state and federal officials. In the 1973 case, Phelps argued that the Topeka Board of Education, in violation of the 1954 ruling, had not yet made its schools equal, and by attending Topeka's east-side, predominantly minority schools, the black plaintiff had received an inferior education.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" /><ref name="new_suit_1973_10_23_nytimes_com">Ayres, B. Drummond: [https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/23/archives/nearly-20-years-after-landmark-court-case-new-suit-charges-topeka.html "New Suit Charges Topeka Schools Still Discriminate Racially,"] October 23, 1973, ''[[New York Times]],'' [[Optical character recognition|OCR]] text retrieved from the ''New York Times'' print archive, August 26, 2020</ref><ref name="twenty_years_1974_06_usccr">[https://books.google.com/books?id=w77DdV_RigoC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17 ''Twenty Years After Brown: The shadows of the past:''] A report of the [[U.S. Commission on Civil Rights]],  June 1974, p.17, footnote #15, retrieved from [[Harvard Law Library]] copy, as reproduced in [[Google Books]]' photocopy, August 26, 2020</ref>

Initially, Phelps attempted to file the case as a [[class action]], in the U.S. District Court for Kansas. Asking the court to order an end to the alleged discrimination and suggesting that busing might be at least one remedy, Phelps also sought $100 million in actual damages, plus another $100 million in punitive damages—or, alternatively, $20,000 for each of the 10,000 students he claimed were in the aggrieved class of victims.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" /><ref name="new_suit_1973_10_23_nytimes_com" /> Nevertheless, the federal district and appellate courts denied the class action filing, limiting the case to Phelps's initial plaintiff, Evelyn Johnson, alone.<ref name="settlement_1979_04_18_gardencity_telegram">[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1631454/ "School Settlement,"] April 18, 1979, ''[[Garden City Telegram]],'' [[Garden City, Kansas]], [[Optical character recognition|OCR]] text retrieved from [[Newspapers.com]] August 26, 2020</ref>

The case fueled a national debate about [[racial integration]] of schools,<ref name="integration_1973_10_28_nytimes_com">[https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/28/archives/fighting-an-old-war-on-same-front-school-integration-the-nation-a.html "School Integration,"] October 28, 1973, ''[[New York Times]],'' [[Optical character recognition|OCR]] text retrieved from the ''New York Times'' print archive, August 26, 2020</ref> and prompted the U.S. [[Department of Health, Education and Welfare]], by 1974, to order the Topeka board to develop corrective remedies.<ref name="twenty_years_1974_06_usccr" />

Topeka's school board did not contest the charges. On the guidance of its insurance provider, it settled the litigation (with no admission of wrongdoing) for $19,500—$12,400 of which went to Phelps. While the settlement drew some praise, controversy arose when the judge ordered the settlement amount sealed at the request of the insurer—apparently with Phelps's approval. (Details leaked out to the media anyway.) Phelps announced he would file more such cases, as class actions, but the insurance company stated it would not pay for any more of them.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" /><ref name="new_suit_1973_10_23_nytimes_com" /><ref name="settlement_1979_04_18_gardencity_telegram" /><ref name="explanations_1979_04_17_manhattan_mercury">[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/424063700/ "Explanations badly needed,"] editorial, April 17, 1979, ''[[Manhattan Mercury]],'' [[Manhattan, Kansas]], [[Optical character recognition|OCR]] text retrieved from [[Newspapers.com]] August 26, 2020</ref>

====Later civil rights career====

In 1986, Phelps sued President [[Ronald Reagan]] over Reagan's appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the [[Holy See|Vatican]], alleging this violated [[separation of church and state]]. The case was dismissed by the U.S. district court.<ref name="taschler1994"/><ref>{{cite court|url=https://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/1986/sg860401.txt|litigants=American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., et al., Petitioners v. Ronald W. Reagan, President of the United States of America, et al.|year=1986|access-date=December 10, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015002003/http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/1986/sg860401.txt|archive-date=October 15, 2012}}</ref>

Phelps' law firm, staffed by himself and family members, also represented non-white Kansans in discrimination actions against [[Kansas City Power and Light]], [[Southwestern Bell]], and the Topeka City Attorney, and represented two female professors alleging discrimination at Kansas universities.<ref name="ocweekly1999"/>

A defeat in his civil rights suit against the City of [[Wichita, Kansas|Wichita]] and others, on behalf of Jesse O. Rice (the fired executive director of the [[Wichita Civil Rights Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]]), among other causes, would lead to further legal actions ending in Phelps' disbarment and censure.{{clarify|date=January 2018}}<ref name="phelps_669_F_Supp_1047_leagle_com">{{cite court|url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/1981808637F2d171_1792/IN%20THE%20MATTER%20OF%20DISCIPLINARY%20PROCEEDINGS%20OF%20PHELPS|title=In the Matter of Fred W. PHELPS Sr., Respondent|number=85-212|volume=669 F.Supp. 1047|court=United States District Court, D.|location=Kansas|date=September 11, 1987|via=Leagle.com|access-date=May 11, 2017}}</ref><ref name="phelps_637_F_2d_171_leagle_com">[https://www.leagle.com/decision/1981808637F2d171_1792/IN%20THE%20MATTER%20OF%20DISCIPLINARY%20PROCEEDINGS%20OF%20PHELPS "In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings of PHELPS No. 81-1022"], 637 F_2d 171 (1981), as transcribed at Leagle.com; retrieved May 11, 2017</ref>

In the 1980s, Phelps received awards from the [[Kansas City metropolitan area|Greater Kansas City]] Chapter of Blacks in Government and the [[Bonner Springs, Kansas|Bonner Springs]] branch of the [[NAACP]], for his work on behalf of black clients.<ref name="phelps_dies_2014_03_20_wichita_eagle" /><ref name="taschler1994"/>

One of his sons, [[Nate Phelps|Nate]], stated that Phelps largely took civil rights cases for money rather than principle. Nate said that his father "held racist attitudes" and he would use slurs against black clients: "They would come into his office and after they left, he would talk about how stupid they were and call them dumb niggers." Nate's sister, [[Shirley Phelps-Roper|Shirley]], denies his account and states their father never used racist language.<ref>{{cite web|first=John|last=Blake|url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/05/hate.preacher/index.html|title='Most-hated', anti-gay preacher once fought for civil rights|website=[[CNN]]|publisher=[[Turner Broadcasting System]]|location=Atlanta, Georgia|date=May 5, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100506031526/http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/05/hate.preacher/index.html|archive-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref>