Oliver Hill

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Oliver Hill

Oliver Hill oversees the swearing in of the first African American member of the Trial Bureau of the Department of Justice
Born May 1, 1907 (1907-05-01)
Flag of Virginia Richmond, Virginia, United States
Died August 5, 2007 (aged 100)
Flag of Virginia Richmond, Virginia, United States
Occupation Civil rights attorney

Oliver White Hill, Sr. (May 1, 1907 – August 5, 2007) was a civil rights attorney from Richmond, Virginia.[1] [2] His work against racial discrimination helped end the doctrine of "separate but equal." He also helped win landmark legal decisions involving equality in pay for black teachers, access to school buses, voting rights, jury selection, and employment protection. He retired in 1998 after practicing law for almost 60 years. Among his numerous awards is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Bill Clinton in 1999.

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[edit] Childhood, education

Hill was born as Oliver White in Richmond, Virginia in 1907. His parents separated while he was still a baby, and he took on his stepfather's last name. The Hill family moved to Roanoke and then to Washington, D.C., where he graduated from Dunbar High School.[3]

Oliver White Hill earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University and graduated from Howard University's School of Law in 1933.[2] In law school, Hill was a classmate, and close friend of future Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall. He graduated second only to Marshall in his class.[2]

[edit] Career

Hill began practicing law in Richmond in 1939. In 1940, working with fellow attorneys Thurgood Marshall, William H. Hastie, and Leon A. Ranson, Hill won his first civil rights case.[2] The decision in Alston v. School Board of Norfolk, Va., gained pay equity for black teachers. In 1943, Hill joined the United States Army, and served in the European Theatre of World War II.

Returning to his law practice at the end of World War II, he won the right for equal transportation for school children in the Virginia Supreme Court. In 1949, he became the first African American on the City Council of Richmond since Reconstruction in the late 19th century. [4]

In the early 1950s, Hill was co-counsel with Spottswood W. Robinson III in dozens of civil rights lawsuits around Virginia. In 1951, he took up the cause of the African American students at the segregated R.R. Moton High School in Farmville who had walked out of their dilapidated school. The subsequent lawsuit, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County later became one of the five cases decided under Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954.[2]

During the 1940s and 1950s, the safety of Hill's life and family were threatened by his work. Due to the barrage of telephoned threats, Hill's young son was not allowed to answer the telephone, and at one point a cross was burned on the Hill's lawn.[4] However, Hill and his clients continued to wage legal battles. After Brown decision, Virginia under the Byrd Organization followed a policy known as massive resistance to avoid desegregation, including tuition grant support of segregation academies set up to avoid the extant public schools.[5] In 1959, after public schools had been closed in several localities, notably Norfolk Public Schools and Warren County Public Schools, the Virginia Supreme Court finally ruled Virginia's law prohibiting integrated public schools was unconstitutional. Following that ruling, "Massive Resistance" as an official state policy was abruptly dropped by Virginia Governor James Lindsay Almond, Jr. and the schools in Norfolk and Front Royal were reopened.

However, it was to be more than ten more years before many school districts in Virginia were significantly integrated, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision against freedom of choice plans in the Green v. School Board of New Kent County case of 1968, in which his law partner Samuel W. Tucker was lead counsel, supported by a young lawyer Hill had recruited, Henry L. Marsh, III.

He was long a partner in the Hill, Tucker and Marsh law firm in Richmond and continued civil rights litigation until he retired in 1998.

[edit] Awards and honors

Hill's accomplishments have earned many awards and citations including the 1959 "Lawyer of the Year Award" from the National Bar Association, the "Simple Justice Award" from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1986 and the American Bar Association "Justice Thurgood Marshall Award" in 1993. President of the United States Bill Clinton awarded Hill the "Presidential Medal of Freedom" in 1999.[2][6] Students at the University of Virginia also honored Hill when they founded the Oliver W. Hill Black Pre-Law Association.

In 2000, he received the American Bar Association Medal, and the National Bar Association "Hero of the Law" award. In September 2000, he and other NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers were honored with the "Harvard Medal of Freedom" for their role in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 2005 he was awarded the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.[2] He's also a renowned member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

In Richmond, a bronze bust of him is visible at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. The city's Oliver Hill Courts Building was named for him.

In October 2005, Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner dedicated a newly renovated building in Virginia's Capitol Square in his honor. The Oliver W. Hill Building is the first state-owned building as well as the first in Virginia's Capitol Square to be named for an African American. "Oliver W. Hill has worked tirelessly to end the injustice of segregation, and today we honor his lifetime of contributions to our commonwealth and our nation" said Governor Warner. "It's my hope that the generations of Virginians and Americans who come after us and visit this Square will think that the history we reflect in our monuments is as rich and diverse as our people, and that the heroes that this generation has chosen to honor bring new and vital lessons."

Also in Capitol Square, a Civil Rights Memorial will be commissioned and placed by 2007. The memorial will honor the roles Virginians have played in the nation's struggle for civil rights for all.

Oliver Hill's autobiography: The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education, The Autobiography of Oliver W. Hill, Sr. edited by Professor Jonathan K. Stubbs, was published in 2000.

On Sunday, August 5, 2007, Oliver Hill died peacefully during breakfast at his home in Richmond, Virginia of natural causes at the age of 100 years old. Later that day, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine issued a statement, saying:

"As a pioneer for civil rights, an accomplished attorney, and a war veteran, Mr. Hill's dedication to serving the Commonwealth and the country never failed. And, despite all of the accolades and honors he received, Mr. Hill always believed his true legacy was working to challenge the conscience of our Commonwealth and our country." [7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ellen Robertson,; Michael Paul Williams anr Lindsay Kastner (August 6, 2007). Civil Rights Crusader. Richmond Times Dispatch. Retrieved on 2007-08-06.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oliver White Hill Bio- Oliver W. Hill Sr.. Richmond Times Dispatch (August 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-06.
  3. ^ Bernstein, Adam (August 6, 2007). Oliver W. Hill, 1907-2007. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-08-09.
  4. ^ a b The HistoryMakers-Oliver Hill Biography. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  5. ^ Glasrud, Bruce (May 1977). "The Crisis of Conservative Virginia: The Byrd Organization and the Politics of Massive Resistance (book review)". The Journal of Southern History 43 (2): 324–325. doi:10.2307/2207385. 
  6. ^ Robert C. Scott (May 1, 2007). A Tribute to Oliver White Hill In the U.S. House of RepresentativesMay 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
  7. ^ Official Site of the Governor of Virginia - Tim Kaine

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