Arthur Davis Shores was admitted to the Alabama bar in 1937. Shores was a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He graduated high school from Industrial High School (now Parker High School). Afterwards, he attended Talladega College and graduated in 1924. He was a teacher, then a principal, of Dunbar High School in Bessemer, Alabama. He was also one of the founders of the Alabama State Teachers Association, serving as the group's secretary. In the early 1930s, he was elected vice-president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools. He was also very involved in the NAACP, serving as treasurer of the Birmingham chapter. While teaching, he was reading the law, taking extension courses in law from LaSalle Extension University of Chicago, and graduate courses at the University of Kansas. He passed the bar exam in 1937. Afterwards, he became a civil rights lawyer. He opened a law office in the Masonic Temple Building on Fourth Avenue in Birmingham.
Arthur Alexander Madison was admitted to the Alabama bar on March 10, 1938. In 1944, while trying to help African Americans register to vote, he was arrested under an Alabama statute that made it illegal to represent a person without his or her consent. Madison had taken appeals for eight African Americans who were denied the right to vote, however, five of the eight filed affidavits claiming they had not authorized Madison to take the appeals. Madison tried to get a legal decision that the restrictive registration law in Alabama was unconstitutional, but he was unsuccessful. As a result, he was disbarred on July 24, 1945. He relocated to New York City. In New York, Madison became part of the Harlem Lawyers' Association, becoming the first president of the bar group. While president, he initiated several programs that helped the association gain influence.