Cody Fowler was a lawyer in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
who was noted early in his career for his willingness to defend African Americans in court, something many other white lawyers at the time were unwilling to do. Fowler went on to become chairman of both Tampa and Florida’s Bi-Racial Commissions in 1959, which were formed to help the city and state to navigate racial issues. He was also appointed president of the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
in 1950, becoming the first Tampa lawyer to attain that distinction.
The
Cody Fowler House, which was built for him by
M. Leo Elliot in 1922, is a historic home in
Temple Terrace
Temple Terrace is an incorporated city in northeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, adjacent to Tampa. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 26,690. It is the third and smallest incorporated municipality in Hillsb ...
.
Early life
Born in 1892 in Arlington, Tennessee, Fowler attended the
Missouri Military Academy
The Missouri Military Academy (MMA) is a private preparatory school established on November 22, 1889, in Mexico, Missouri. The academy is a selective, all male, boarding school, grades 7 to 12. As a U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Trainin ...
in
Mexico, Missouri
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, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption = The Audrain County Courthouse in downtown Mexico.
, image_flag =
, image_seal = ...
,
Castle Heights School in
Lebanon, Tennessee, the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
, and
Cumberland University
Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was founded in 1842. The campus's current historic buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896.
History
1842-1861
The university was founded by the Cumberlan ...
.
Career and community involvement
Cody Fowler arrived in Tampa in 1924 and was heavily involved in Tampa’s civic life. His mother, Maud Fowler, was involved in the development of Temple Terrace, and served as its first mayor in 1926. Cody Fowler drafted the city charter, served as city attorney, and also served a term as mayor in 1928.
Fowler also filed the application for the first federally chartered thrift in Tampa, First Federal (later
Freedom Savings and Loan Association), on the first day applications were being accepted as part of the
New Deal in 1933. According to those who worked with him at the bank, Fowler used to tell how he merely happened to be in Washington D.C. at the time and visited the office that handled these charters. First Federal was responsible for most of the home loans in Tampa’s emerging communities, as it had no other competition.
In 1943, Cody Fowler and Morris White united to form a partnership in Tampa. Fowler, a charismatic leader, and White, a reserved academic, brought their distinctive personalities together to manage the firm and guide its successful expansion southward. In 1950, Henry Burnett was the third attorney to join the firm’s Miami office. He was followed shortly thereafter by Richard S. Banick. The firm evolved to become Fowler, White, Burnett, Hurley, Banick & Strickroot in the early 1970s – now simply known as Fowler White.
Tampa Bi-Racial Commission
In 1959, Fowler was called upon to chair the Tampa Bi-Racial Commission. Despite his Southern roots, Fowler was committed to peaceful integration, and brought to the Commission other like-minded people who had cooperated on another bi-racial project, the
Progress Village housing development for African-American homeowners. In February, 1960, a lunch-counter protest by the NAACP Youth Council in Tampa led some non-affiliated black youths to take on their own protests that resulted in scattered violence. In response to this, as well as at the urging of Governor
LeRoy Collins
Thomas LeRoy Collins (March 10, 1909 – March 12, 1991) was an American politician who served as the 33rd Governor of Florida. Collins began his governorship after winning a special election in 1954, was elected to a four-year term in 1956 ...
for Fowler to address similar conflicts appearing across the state, Fowler maneuvered the Commission to mediate the dispute, and met privately to urge local businesses to adopt new policies to avoid further tensions. Along with the NAACP and the Merchants Association, the Commission drafted a plan to desegregate lunch counters at the same time, so that angry whites could not visit reprisals on any one establishment. In the following years, the Commission worked in a similarly quiet way to desegregate other services, including the symbolic importance of convincing the
Gasparilla Parade Committee to allow black marchers in the parade.
Legacy
*Named Tampa's Man of the Year in 1952.
*Cody Fowler's name now adorns
Fowler Avenue in Tampa, Florida.
*The law firm Cody Fowler co-founded, Fowler White Burnett, P.A. still exists today in Miami (main), Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida.
*Cody Fowler's bronze bust is part of Tampa's Riverwalk Historical Monument Trail.
References
External links
Cody Fowler Papers at the University of South Florida, Tampa Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Cody
1892 births
1978 deaths
Florida city attorneys
Lawyers from Tampa, Florida
People from Shelby County, Tennessee
People from Temple Terrace, Florida
20th-century American lawyers
Missouri Military Academy alumni