Al L. Vreeland

Al L. Vreeland was a minister, attorney, social activist and advocate for the legal rights of the poor.

Albert Loring Vreeland was born on October 6, 1928, in Orlando, Florida. After graduating from Bob Jones University and earning a Doctor of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary, Al served as a Presbyterian pastor in Enterprise, Alabama, and Chattahoochee, Florida. His early career also included leading social programs focused on prison reform, alcohol abuse, and supporting disadvantaged youth and people with intellectual disabilities. 

In the mid-1960s, Al moved to Tuscaloosa to serve as the Assistant Dean of Men at the University of Alabama. During this pivotal era, he also led the Tuscaloosa Council on Human Relations, working to improve local race relations. Following a period in the late 1960s organizing community projects in inner-city Washington, D.C., Al returned to Tuscaloosa in 1972 to earn his law degree from the University of Alabama. 

After a stint in the District Attorney’s Office, Al entered private practice, where he eventually dedicated his focus to helping those with limited means. Throughout his legal career, he remained a tireless advocate for the poor, championing equal representation through his extensive pro bono work, a decade of service on the board of the Legal Services Corporation of Alabama, and his steadfast support of the Alabama State Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Al died at the age of 78 on March 7, 2007 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.