North Carolina Central University School of Law receives $100,000 grant from Duke Energy Foundation

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina Central University School of Law received a $100,000 from the Duke Energy Foundation to establish the Private Booker T. Spicely Endowed Scholarship Fund.

The scholarship will benefit current law students working on issues impacting the legal and civil rights of veterans in the Veterans Law Clinic. That clinic helps provide free legal aid to current and former military members in North Carolina.

"We are honored to collaborate with the Duke Energy Foundation as we further our commitment to those who valiantly protect our country and have contributed so much to communities across North Carolina and the nation," said Malik Edwards, interim dean of NCCU School of Law.

Booker T. Spicely was a soldier stationed at Camp Butner. One day in 1944, he refused to move to the back of a bus for two white soldiers. Bus driver, Herman Lee Council, followed Spicely after he got off the bus and shot him twice.

Council was tried for second-degree murder but was found not guilty by an all-white jury on the grounds of self-defense.