Former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clarke, visited Ireland in the 1981. A civil rights champion he helped draft the US 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Civil Rights Act, both crucial to the Civil Rights campaign. He ensured federal protection for African-American James Meredith’s 1962 enrolment to the segregated campus of Mississippi University and for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. He also gave evidence at the infamous 1970 Chicago Seven trial.
He was one of the many politicians and lawyers campaigning on the Sallins Case across party political boundaries in the US Congress and throughout the USA. Advocating the release of Nicky Kelly he called for a public inquiry. Debating the Sallins frame-up with Justice Minister Michael Noonan, he famously said ‘I could drive a train through your case!’
