Frederick Thomas Gray

Frederick Thomas Gray
29th Attorney General of Virginia
In office September 1961 – January 1962
Appointed by	James Lindsay Almond Jr.
Preceded by	Albertis Harrison
Succeeded by	Robert Young Button
Member of the Virginia Senate from the 11th district
In office 1972–1984
Preceded by	Robert E. Russell Sr.
Succeeded by	Lloyd C. Bird
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the 23rd district
Preceded by	Edward M. Hudgins
Succeeded by	Alexander B. McMurtrie Jr.
In office 1966–1971
Personal details
Born	October 10, 1918
Died	May 14, 1992 Chester, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Eva Helms Johnson
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Richmond

Frederick Thomas Gray (October 10, 1918 – May, 1992) was a Virginia attorney and Democratic Party politician. Governor James Lindsay Almond Jr. appointed Gray to serve as Attorney General of Virginia after the resignation of Attorney General Albertis Harrison (a member of the Democratic political organization led by Senator Harry F. Byrd) to run for Governor of Virginia during the Massive Resistance crisis in Virginia. Gray returned to private practice at Williams Mullen after Robert Young Button (elected Attorney General during the same 1961 election in which Harrison became Governor) took office. Gray later served in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate (both part-time positions) as he continued his law practice.

Frederick Gray was born in Petersburg, Virginia to Franklin Pierce and the former Mary Gervase (Pouder).

The day Gray was commissioned as a first lieutenant and navigator in the Army Air Corps, October 16, 1943, he married Evelyn Helms Johnson of Chesterfield County, Virginia who had traveled cross-country to the wedding in Sacramento, California. After decades living at her family's ancestral home at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, she survived him, as would a son (with his father's name but nickname "Rick") and daughter.

After World War II ended, Gray attended the University of Richmond Law School and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1949.

Gray served as an Assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1949–1957 and briefly as attorney general (1961–1962). Between those public service stints, he was a partner at various law firms, including Williams Mullen (1957–1961, 62–83), and later at Gray, Sinnott, Tucker & Duke in Chesterfield, Virginia (1983–1985). In 1965, Gray's testimony that Virginia did not discriminate against black voters was subject to cross-examination by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, which civil rights attorney and later fellow Virginia State Senator Henry L. Marsh believes led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1967 Gray argued and lost Green v. County School Board of New Kent County before the U.S.Supreme Court; the court striking down the nominal school choice plans based on their actual performance.

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