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Dateline: 3/2/2009

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

Documentary to Feature Law School Alumnus Maxey

‘Carl Maxey: From Black Scratch’

(SPOKANE, Wash.) — InFocus Productions, a Spokane-based independent film company, says its documentary “Carl Maxey: From Black Scratch” is in production and is to be finished by 2010 or sooner, depending on funding.

Carl Maxey won the NCAA championship as a GU boxer in 1950. Photo Courtesy Gonzaga University Archives.
Carl Maxey won the national championship at GU as a boxer and fought for civil rights throughout his celebrated law career.
The documentary portrays the life of the late Spokane attorney Carl Maxey and his tireless work advocating for civil rights in Spokane and nationwide. Maxey, who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from the Gonzaga University School of Law to become Spokane’s first African-American attorney. He challenged racial policies in education, real estate and social organizations in a career that lasted until his death in 1997 at age 73. The Gonzaga University School of Law awarded Maxey the Gonzaga Law Medal in 1993 for his lifetime achievements in law, and civil and human rights. Actor Keith David narrates the documentary. It will be the first hour-long documentary from KSPS about a local African-American icon.

Maxey, an orphan under the tutelage of Jesuit priest Rev. Cornelius Byrne, from Desmet, Idaho, opened doors for black teachers and made it illegal for social clubs to refuse service to African Americans. According to a 1998 story by The New York Times, a fellow lawyer referred to Maxey as a “Type-A Ghandi.”
All Public Broadcasting Service TV stations nationwide will have the opportunity to air the documentary, said Denise Marie Thomas, who collaborated with Spokane PBS affiliate KSPS-TV to make the documentary a reality.

To view the trailer from the film, visit the following link: For more information, contact Denise Marie Thomas at InFocus at (509) 869-1322 or via e-mail.