page_title: Fred Levin
section_title: African American Community
hierarchical_section_title: Fred Levin / African American Community
caption_attribution_description: English: George Starke and Fred Levin at Law School Naming
context_page_description: Fredric Gerson Levin is an American plaintiffs' lawyer in the state of Florida, who serves as chairman of Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor, P.A, a law firm in Northwest Florida. The Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida is named for him because of a monetary donation he made to the school in 1999.
  Fred is best known for rewriting Florida's Medicaid Third-Party Recovery Act to allow the State of Florida to sue and recover billions of dollars from the tobacco industry for smoking related illnesses. His flamboyant and brazen personality has resulted in him being prosecuted by The Florida Bar two times, and investigated two additional times.
  The life of Fred Levin was summarized in the weekly medical journal The Lancet. In its December 2014 edition, the author wrote: "And Give Up Showbiz? explores the extraordinary life of a pioneering and often controversial lawyer. Seen as an inspiring innovator by some, and a flamboyant self-promoter by others, Levin's work was not always met with a favourable outcome. Levin was accused of two murders, and has often met with controversy because of his relentless fight for justice against big companies.
context_section_description: When Fred entered the University of Florida College of Law in 1958, George Starke, the first African American student to enter a public institution in the state of Florida, entered with Fred's class. Fred described the first day as follows: "They had all of us on one side of the auditorium and he was all by himself, except for all the Secret Service people. Up to that point, I had not thought much about racial issues. I looked over and my heart went out to him. Here were 350 white law students and this one black guy. He was dressed in a suit, and the rest of us were dressed like bums. They started shuffling him, which is rubbing your feet together on the floor like they do in prison. . . .  I always studied in the library, and I would look across at George because he always had to sit at a table by himself and everybody would shuffle their feet. It just tore me up. I wanted to go over and sit with him, but I didn't have the guts."
  After the first semester of law school, Fred approached George to become his study partner. The two remained friends for the next two years.  Although Fred ended up graduating number three out of his graduating class, George failed to graduate.
  In an oral history interview conducted by Samuel Proctor at the University of Florida, Fred described the final events leading to George leaving the University of Florida. "We were going to study for the exam the next day, I told him to meet me at my apartment. I was running a little late, and I got there, and he's sitting on the steps, we were an upstairs apartment. I said, 'Why didn't you go on in?' He said, 'You don't understand, a colored man doesn't go into an apartment where a white woman is.' I said, 'Oh the hell with it, come on.' So we came in, Marilyn cooked supper for us, and we studied all night long. I had these little flip cards that worked real well. All night long. He goes home, and I clean up and go to the exam, and he never shows up. He had gone home just to lay down for a second [snap of fingers], slept through the exam. They wouldn't give him another exam, they flunked him."
  When the law school was renamed to the Fredric G. Levin College of Law in 1999, George attended in support of Fred.
    Shortly after becoming a lawyer in Pensacola, Fred nominated Nathaniel Dedmond to be the first African American as a member of the Escambia-Santa Rosa Counties Bar Association.  Several lawyers in the Association were offended by the nomination and had their wives call Marilyn, Fred's wife.  They asked Marilyn how she would like to be sitting next to Nathaniel Dedmond's wife at a bar meeting.  They were hoping to get Marilyn to go to Fred and have him drop the nomination.  Instead, Marilyn replied: "Oh, yes, that will be fine."  Fred commented that he had never been more proud of Marilyn.   When the nomination came up for vote, the Association voted against Fred's nomination.
  In 1999, Fred received recognition for his support of the African American community by being named a Chief of the country of Ghana,  and receiving a citation from the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus; which provides in part:  "We of the Congressional Black Caucus wish to join with the distinguished world citizens and other leaders in congratulating you on your designation as a Ghanaian Chief. But more specifically, we wish to honor your lifelong contributions to bettering the lives of the people of Ghana and the people of America. Long before we became aware of your outstanding contributions in Africa, we knew of your work as a lawyer fighting on the side of underprivileged people in America. We thank you for that rich legacy. We are proud that the world community is now beginning to recognize your valuable service to it as well."
caption: George Starke and Fred Levin at the law school naming.
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