By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on March 7, 2025
I knew Anthony S. “Tony” Butler was an important person when Dr. Joe L. Reed, the then-Associate Executive Director of the Alabama Education Association (AEA), assigned me to work on Tony's employment discrimination case against the Choctaw County, Alabama School System in the mid-1970s. Tony lived and worked in Lisman, a small town in southwest Alabama that I had never visited.
Dr. Reed told me to spare no resources in fighting for Tony Butler. Losing was not an acceptable option. This was the first time Dr. Reed had given me that instruction in an AEA-backed case.
I called Tony Butler and arranged to meet him in Lisman. As was my routine in the 1970s and early 80s, I reviewed my Traveler's Green Book to plan my trip from Montgomery to Lisman.
In 1974, I was given an annotated version of the Green Book by my mentor, Attorney Solomon S. Seay, Jr., as I began litigating civil rights cases in and around Alabama. The book told me what routes to use and where I could safely eat, buy gasoline, and stay while I was traveling to trial locations outside of my home base of Montgomery.
There were no cell phones or personal security details at the time. As such, every movement had to be carefully planned and coordinated from a safety standpoint.
Tony Butler’s home and the Hayden and Butler Funeral Home were listed in the Green Book as safe places for civil rights activists and lawyers who were visiting the town of Lisman in Choctow County. This part of Alabama was extremely dangerous territory for such activists and their lawyers.
Furthermore, Choctow County was in a federal court district that was notorious for coddling white supremacists and segregationists. Two of the federal judges in the Southern District of Alabama – Brevard Hand and Daniel Thomas – were among the most flaming racists on the federal bench.
Hayden and Butler Funeral Home
In addition to serving as an educator in the Choctow County School System and as a named plaintiff in the case that desegregated the public schools, faculties, and staffs in Choctow County schools, Tony Butler was a part-owner and active funeral director at Hayden and Butler Funeral Home in Lisman.
As an African American-owned business, Hayden and Butler provided Tony Butler with the independent base of operations he needed to launch and wage his decades-long fight to improve the socio-economic conditions of blacks in Choctow County and the state of Alabama.
Tony Butler waged mighty fights that gradually changed the socio-economic landscape in Choctow County. Tony started by desegregating the County's public schools, via court litigation. Tony expanded his fights to include a focus on the fair representation of blacks on state and local government boards and agencies, including the Alabama State Legislature and Alabama's Congressional delegation. Next, Tony focused on economic empowerment to make sure black-owned businesses in Choctow County were not locked out of local government contracting opportunities.
Tony Butler was also elected by his peers as the president of the Alabama Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc. (formerly known as the Alabama Colored Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association). Tony made sure the Association was represented by strong attorneys while it pursued fair marketplace opportunities for its members and the uniform application of regulatory standards.
Overcoming Alabama’s Massive Resistance to Equal Rights and Fair Economic Opportunities
At every turn, Tony Butler’s life was threatened by the forces that sought to (a) preserve the Old South tradition of racial segregation in all aspects of life and (b) perpetuate the exclusion of blacks from fair workplace opportunities. Unfazed, Tony kept fighting. Every battle was strategic, well-planned, hard fought, and executed to perfection.
As the years passed, Tony and I became extremely close. I admired his stamina, his manhood, his passion for greatness, his commitment to equal rights and fair economic opportunities, and his vast reservoir of personal courage.
Looking back on it today, I realize that Dr. Joe Reed sent me to the front lines in Choctow County to fight for and with Tony Butler because Tony was one of Reed's best warriors on the battlefields for equal rights in Alabama.
Epilogue
Tony Butler died on October 30, 1996, at age 75. When Tony died, a piece of me died with him.
Tony and I had fought and bled together in the trenches on Alabama's civil rights battlefields for two decades. We never knew which day we might be killed by the diehard segregationists we encountered and defeated in these battles.
I never had to worry about Tony’s resolve, courage, or willingness to fight hard. He was a true warrior.
This article constitutes my public tribute to one of the bravest warriors I have ever known and fought with. Tony left it all on the battlefield in every contest. He died on his feet fighting for our dignity and respect. I plan to go out the same way.
GROWING UP IN AN ERA SURROUNDED BY NOTABLE WARRIORS, EXPOSED ME TO WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE FUTURE. I REMEMBER MR. BUTLER COMING TO ALICEVILLE TO SEE MY MOTHER (MAGGIE BOZEMAN) REGULARLY AND STRATEGICALLY PLANNING FOR THE NEXT BLACK RURAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. I ALSO REMEMBER MAYOR ANDREW HAYDEN OF UNIONTOWN. TRUE WARRIORS!
I never knew Anthony S. Butler, but his reputation as a civil and human rights icon is gratifying enough to inspire me to keep my feet on the accelerator. Once again, this is another example of brilliant giants among us willing to sacrifice livelihood and comfort in exchange for freedom, equality, and justice for all.
Thank you for your contribution in this cause, and sharing this extraordinary editorial with many viewers unaware of the scope of this contribution.