Carl Maxey; Spokane Civil Rights Lawyer

Carl Maxey, 73, Spokane civil rights lawyer credited with being a prime mover in desegregating the inland Northwest. He was eastern Washington’s first black lawyer and was known as Spokane’s most eminent criminal defense attorney. In 1970, he waged an unsuccessful antiwar campaign against the renomination of the hawkish U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson in the Democratic primary. He spent most of his childhood in the Spokane Children’s Home and was sent to college by a group of white Spokane businessmen. He is survived by his wife, Lou, and two sons. On July 16 in Spokane from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.