"As the "Heart of Dixie" approaches its 2019 Bicentennial, attorney-author Julian L. McPhillips Jr. again draws upon his colorful cases and clients to explore some of the unique aspects of the mind, spirit, and culture of his home state. Two chapters involve other lawyers: a "DUI king" and a family of eight lawyers practicing together. Another relates how in the 1930s F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald enjoyed the same Montgomery neighborhood in which Helen Keller's sister lived and the famous Keller famously visited. This 26-chapter book combines intriguing history with spirituality and brings home interesting tales about Alabamians in distress. McPhillips's own ancestral roots in Alabama predate the state's entry in the union in 1819. Best known as a civil rights attorney and trial lawyer, he has practiced from his base in Montgomery for forty-four years, representing clients from all sixty-seven counties. Born in Birmingham in 1946 but raised in Cullman until 1959, and with deep heritage in Mobile, McPhillips gained perspective beyond Alabam through his years at Sewanee Military Academy, Princeton University, and Columbia Law School and in four years as an attorney on Wall Street. He returned to Alabama in 1975 to serve first as an assistant attorney general and since then as the leader of his private practice law firm." -- Back cover.