Two days before the University of Georgia Law School’s annual Working in the Public Interest Law Conference, the school named Rutherford Institute president John Whitehead the recipient of its Milner S. Ball Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous recipients of the award include J.L. Chestnut, Jr., a civil rights advocate and the first African-American attorney in Selma, Alabama, and Phyllis Holmen, executive director of the Georgia Legal Services Program.
"Over the years, we’ve defended thousands upon thousands of people," says Whitehead in his acceptance speech. "People who find that they can’t picket in front of a governmental office, they get arrested, which they have a free speech right to be there. Prisoners who can’t get information in prison or who are abused in prison…public school students who are thrown out for such crazy things as taking Alka Seltzer in violation of zero-tolerance drug policies… You name the people, we have defended them."
Watch Whitehead’s complete acceptance remarks in the video below: