Anthony Lyons

Anthony Lyons was born in 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended Fort Worth Polytechnic High School and graduated in 1974. He served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. His unit evacuated people out of Saigon from the embassy after Saigon fell. For his efforts in Vietnam he was awarded several accommodations from the United States Navy and Marines. He attended The University of Texas at Arlington for his undergraduate degree. After, Lyons attended Texas Southern University Marshall School of Law.

When he finished law school, he fell into protesting in Fort Worth. After hearing on television that Fort Worth was getting ready to vote for pension funds for the Police and Fire Department, Lyons wanted to ensure they were not going to make investments in South Africa. He went down to the Fort Worth City Council to speak against investment and received backlash from council members Jim Baxby and Burt Williams. This led to Anthony Lyons becoming the face of the anti-apartheid movement in Fort Worth. He was soon protesting at the Fort Worth City Council every week. He worked with Gary Gilley to write a Resolution for the city of Fort Worth in which they outlined that none of their investments would go to South Africa. To help write the resolution they used the Presbyterian Church’s model investment strategy. Fort Worth passed the resolution and soon after, at least 37 other cities used Fort Worth’s model to create their own resolutions.

Anthony Lyons passed the bar in September of 1987 and began working with the Dallas District Attorney Office. In 1995, Lyons attended the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. and considers that event to be the single most important part of his life. Anthony Lyons continues to practice law in Dallas and has been extremely active throughout his career in helping diversify the courthouse by hiring more minority lawyers.