Oliver White Hill, Sr. (May 1, 1907 - August 5, 2007) is an American civil rights lawyer from Richmond, Virginia. His work against racial discrimination helped to end a "separate but equal" doctrine. He also helped win landmark law decisions involving equality in payments for black teachers, access to school buses, voting rights, jury selection, and job protection. He retired in 1998 after practicing law for nearly 60 years. Among his numerous awards is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which US President Bill Clinton gave him in 1999.
Video Oliver Hill
childhood, education and family life
Oliver White was born in Richmond, Virginia, on May 1, 1907. His father, William Henry White Jr., left his mother Olivia Lewis White Hill (1888-1980) shortly after the boy's birth, although W.H. White Jr. briefly returned six months later before leaving Richmond permanently. Although rare and difficult to obtain at the time, her mother obtained a divorce in 1911. When Oliver was 9 years old, after the death of his maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather, W.H. Jr White returns briefly to Richmond and asks his son if he wants to stay with him in New York City (Oliver refuses the offer).
Since Olivia Hill works at Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, during spring and autumn, and a related resort in Bermuda during the winter, Oliver was raised by his grandmother and grandaunt in a small house in St. Louis. James Street in the African-American section of Richmond. When Oliver was six years old, his mother Olivia Hill returned to Richmond for her mother's funeral, and introduced Oliver to her new husband, Joseph Cartwright Hill, who worked as a waitress at a Homestead resort. Oliver's maternal grandmother moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, but returned to Richmond shortly before her death. Grandfather of his father William Henry White Sr. had founded Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Richmond, which the family attended and where Oliver attended Sunday school, but Rev. White died on August 13, 1913, shortly after Lewis's grandmother. His paternal grandmother, Kate Garnet White, is said to be a part of Native Americans, but has nothing to do with Oliver and his mother. The ancestors of both families came from Chesterfield County, and at least some were probably enslaved before the American Civil War. Young Oliver got along very well with Joseph Hill, and finally changed his birth certificate to reflect Hill's surname.
Joseph Hill moved his wife and Oliver to Roanoke, where he operated the pool room until Prohibition made it uneconomical, so Joseph and Olivia Hill soon resumed their hospitality industry career. The Hill family lives in the same house as Bradford Pentecost and his wife Lelia (d. 1943), who has no children, but often takes dorms working on Norfolk and Southern Railroad like Mr. Pentecost (a cook). Hot Springs does not have a school for black kids, so Oliver remained in Roanoke, where he attended separate schools until the eighth grade (the latter offered to blacks in the city at the time). He also got his first job - at a local ice cream shop (until the local police quoted him for violating child labor laws), and sent newspapers and ice, finding heavier and well-paid jobs as he grew stronger. During this time, the Pentecostal family bought a larger house, 401 Gilmer Avenue. Hill came to consider Roanoke's childhood home. He then specifically remembered not taking care of food for strikers during the 1922 Highway Strike, because the striking union was all white, and tried to limit Negro employees to work hard. Mrs. Pentecost tried to keep Oliver from working on the railroad, because his brother quit college for work, and never returned, although many of his pesantren took a year off to pay for college.
In 1916, the Hills moved to Washington, D.C., where Joseph Hill worked at the Navy Yard during the First World War. Oliver was in the sixth grade, but he did not like the D.C primary school he attended for a semester, and was thus allowed to return to Roanoke and his foster parents, Pentecost. In 1923, further education was not available to him in Roanoke, Hill moved to Washington D.C. to attend (and graduate from) Dunbar High School, which at that time may have offered the best education available to black children in the country. At first Oliver was behind an academic semester, and also lacked any scientific seriousness. He also plays various sports-especially tennis in Roanoke, but baseball, soccer and basketball at Dunbar (who do not have a tennis team).
Joseph Hill's brother, Samuel, worked in the post office in Washington, D.C., and outside his working hours worked as a lawyer who handled most of the estate and real estate deals. Samuel Hill died of cerebral hemorrhage when Oliver was a second year student, and his wife gave Oliver his law book, which tickled his interest in law school. After learning that the Supreme Court had taken many African-American rights, and that in 1920 the Congress was unable to pass a law banning the expelled negroes, Oliver White Hill decided to go to law school and reverse Plessy v. Ferguson issued little before his birth.
Hill performed various part-time jobs at D.C. during his college years at Howard University and later at the Howard University School of Law. He spent the summer earning money for his education at various resorts in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Oswegatchie, Connecticut, as well as for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
After earning a bachelor's degree in 1930, Oliver studied at Howard's law school. There, Hill is a classmate and close friend of the future High Court Judge Thurgood Marshall, even though they are leaders of the fraternal fraternity of Omega Psi Phi and Alpha Phi Alpha. Both studied under the guidance of Charles Hamilton Houston, the principal architect in challenging Jim Crow's law through legal channels. Marshall graduated first in his law school class in 1933, and Oliver White Hill was second.
Hill married and married Beresenia Ann Walker (April 8, 1911 - September 27, 1993) from Richmond on September 5, 1934. She taught school in Washington during her early years of training in Roanoke, and she soon moved back to Washington. She is the daughter of Andrew J. Walker and Yetta Lee Brown, and nephew Maggie Lena Walker. Their son, Oliver White Hill Jr., was born on September 19, 1949 in Richmond, after Hill returned from World War II service.
Maps Oliver Hill
Careers
Initial years
Hill began practicing law in Roanoke during the Great Depression, sharing his office with J. Henry Clayer (a lawyer who had worked at the district attorney's office in Chicago), and a dentist and doctor. It is a common practice and also involves criminal work in the surrounding area, where blacks face prejudice. Howard Law School had received funding to challenge the segregation of Negroes, but the endowment was virtually eliminated during the stock market crash of 1929. In 1935, Hill helped organize the NAACP branches of the Virginia State Conference, with the help of his friend Leon A. Ransom. Printer W.P. Milner of the Norfolk Journal and Guide newspaper was the first President and Dr. Jesse M. Tinsley (a Richmond dentist and president of the Richmond branch) is the Vice President. When Milner was fired from his job for union activities, Tinsley became President of the state conference (and remained so for 30 years).
However, the new general practice did not develop in Roanoke, and he missed his wife, so Hill returned to Washington DC in June 1936. He and his college friend William T. Whitehead often took on the job as waiters, and also tried to organize waiters and chefs for the Organization Congress Industry because the Federation of Trade Unions of America is white or separate.
After several meetings at Howard, Hill returned to Virginia in 1939, thinking of establishing a law firm with J. Byron Hopkins (a class above Hill in Howard Law) and J. Thomas Hewin Jr. (whose father has established practices in Richmond). Hill also traveled with Jesse Tinsley on NAACP assignments and speaking assignments, and served the Virginia Teachers Association (since the Virginia Educational Association represents only white teachers). He also met and worked in some cases in a remote community with Martin A. Martin from Danville. In 1942, Martin became the first African-American lawyer in the US Justice Department Division, but he did not like his duty and resigned a year later to work in Richmond with Hill and Spottswood W. Robinson III, forming Hill, Martin & ; Robinson at 623 N. Third Street in Richmond.
In 1940, working with Thurgood Marshall lawyers, William H. Hastie, and Leon A. Ransom, Hill won his first civil rights case. The decision at Alston v. The Norfolk School Board, Va. , 112 F.2d 992 (4th Cir.), Cert. rejected 311 US 693 (1940) earned equality of salary for black teachers. The company also works to equate school facilities and obtain bus transportation for black students.
On Labor Day, 1942, Hill accompanied five girls and two fathers to two secondary schools in Sussex County, Virginia. The county has 23 single or two-room primary schools (all with no water channels inside the house) serving 1,902 children of African-American parents, but offering them education beyond the seventh grade only at the Training School in Waverly, Virginia and no transport). In June 1942, Sussex County also had four new primary schools and consolidated primary schools for 867 white students. Surprised principals from Jarrett High School and Stony Creek High School refused entry of African-American girls to their respective schools. Hill politely thanked them, left, and immediately filed a lawsuit at the federal district court in Richmond, trying to tell the difference between unconstitutional black and white high school students. The lawsuit was dismissed when the county obtained three buses to provide a trip to the Training School, and later admitted over 60 high school students to Waverly High School. However, from the girls, only Helen Owens earned a high school diploma, and that's from Peabody High School in Petersburg; three of his plaintiffs attended the Sussex Training Academy, and others attended but did not graduate from Peabody.
Service war
In 1943, although Hill was 36 years old, she was somehow recruited during World War II. He chose to join the United States Army, rather than the US Navy, which he said at that time only allowed black sailors to perform the tasks of the halls. Like his colleagues Samuel W. Tucker and other African-Americans, Hill experienced racial discrimination during military service, mainly by white officers. Unlike Tucker, Hill was not allowed to enroll in the School of Officers Candidate, but served in a black engineer unit, and performed most of the support work as Staff Sergeant. He praised the unprofessional racist remarks of the unit's white chapel (which tried to stop white British people from being friendly with black troops) by saving him and his unit from an almost certain death during the Normandy D-Day invasion. Hill served at the European Theater of World War II until V-E Day, when his unit was sent to the Pacific, from which it was eventually discarded.
Politics
Returning to his law practice in Richmond, Hill also served as chief of staff of Virginia branch law. In 1947, Hill persuaded W. Lester Banks to act as Executive Director of Virginia Chapter and handle the day-to-day activities of the organization. This allowed Hill to make his sole effort for elections to public office.
In 1947, he first ran for the Richmond City Council (which had turned his system into nine members elected broadly than by prewar districts), but ranked 10th in a race for 9 seats. Hill ran again in 1949 and became the first African American in Richmond City Council since Reconstruction. At that time, the city's population was about 30% black, and Hill said he hoped that his election would not only help dispel the prejudices against blacks in the city, but also give Richmonders a better experience of citizenship responsibilities. However, Hill did not win re-election in the next election (1951), failed to make the last available seat with 44 votes, as the controversy over his legal work discussed below has begun, and since Hill also supports unpopular road projects. '
Pioneer of civil rights
As Virginia chief of staff law, which also includes her legal partner Spottswood W. Robinson III and a dozen others, Hill filed dozens of lawsuits against the state. They won over $ 50 million in improvements for black students and teachers. Hill believes that school can be central to desegregation, but he is also a realist, admitting that Southern techniques to "get along" between their races leads white people to believe that most blacks prefer segregation when in fact they are against it aloud.
The initial case at the Virginia Supreme Court won the same transportation for black schoolchildren. In 1951, the team took the causes of African-American students at R.R. High School A separate Moton in Farmville that has dropped out of their dilapidated school. The next lawsuit, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County , then became one of five cases decided under Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Hill's life and family security was often threatened by his legal work. Crank calls (many with threats) come all day and night until the family learns to pull out their phone at night (much to the phone company's displeasure, but then also refuses to track the cranky and threatening calls that have provoked the self-help). Hill's son was not allowed to answer the phone, and at one point in 1955 a cross was set on fire in the Hills lawn.
Nevertheless, Hill and his clients continue their legal battle to assert their civil rights. After the Brown decision of 1954 and 1955, the dominant Byrd Organization in Virginia adopted a policy known as massive resistance to avoid desegregation. A special legislative session in 1956 passed a legislative package known as the Stanley plan. These include two special legislative committees with increased powers, and who come to harass the NAACP. It also allows the governor (later Thomas B. Stanley, followed by J. Lindsay Almond Jr.) to close separate schools, and provide grants for segregated college coursework established to avoid public schools remaining. In 1959, after public schools were closed in several places, notably the Prince Edward Public School, the Norfolk Public School and Warren County Public School, the Supreme Court of Virginia and the 3rd panel of federal judges on January 19, 1959, ultimately controlled most of Stanley's Plans and Virginia law banned integrated public schools are unconstitutional. Not long after, the Governor of Almond suddenly dropped the "Mass Resistance" as the official state policy; the schools in Norfolk and Arlington were peacefully integrated on 5 February 1959, and schools in the Front Royal and all locations except in Prince Edward County reopened. Nonetheless, the Prince Edward County schools only reopened in 1964 after the US Supreme Court ruling in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County.
After Massive Resistance collapsed, Hill accepted her work with the Federal Housing Administration, putting her personal legal practice held for five years, but worked to delegate public housing nationwide.
Virginia NAACP's efforts continued, and Hill returned to the practice of Virginia and the leadership of the state legal staff in 1965, following the issuance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Right of Electing Act in 1965. The Act, new. Education and Welfare Regulations (which provide additional funding for districts in accordance with the mandate of racial desegregation), and School Board v. The New Kent County Green (1968) finally reached a balance toward Virginia's integrated public school. Green , the crucial decision against the freedom of choice plan was disputed by Hill Samuel W. Tucker's legal partner, backed by Hill's recruited young lawyer, Henry L. Marsh, III.
He continued litigation of civil rights as Hill's partner, Tucker and Marsh in Richmond until he retired in 1998. One of the last partners he brought to the firm, Clarence Dunnaville had worked with him in his youth on cases of school desegregation and resuming his duties. working through the Oliver Hill Foundation, which seeks to capitalize on Hill's former home in Roanoke to provide legal services to the poor through third-year students at Washington and Lee School of Law. The company closed in late 2015 after Henry Marsh III decided to focus on his duties in the General Assembly.
Death and inheritance
Oliver Hill lives longer than his beloved wife Bernie for more than a decade, and also lives longer than his contemporaries from civil rights struggles. He mourns his colleague and former Richmond judge, Harold M. Marsh Sr., was shot in 1997 when stopped at a traffic light half a mile from the courthouse that would soon bear the names of his brother and brother by the renter behind in rent and facing eviction. Hill spent the last few years working on his autobiography with Professor Jonathan K. Stubbs. The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education, The Autobiography of Oliver W. Hill, Sr. It was published in 2000 and reprinted for its 100th anniversary in 2007. Hill also gave a history of oral interviews to Virginia Commonwealth University scholars in 2002. In January 2004, he was a leading panelist during the celebrations Howard University about the lawyers who contributed to the Brown decision, on the 50th anniversary.
On Sunday, August 5, 2007, Oliver Hill died peacefully at breakfast at his home in Richmond, a natural cause at the age of 100 years. Later that day, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine ordered the flag to fly a half-mast in honor of Hill and issued a statement:
- As a pioneer of civil rights, competent lawyers and war veterans, Mr. Hill's dedication to serving the Commonwealth and the state has never failed, and despite all the honors and honors he has received, Mr. " Hill always believes his true heritage works to challenge the conscience of our Commonwealth and our country. "
More than 1,200 people saw her body while resting in the Executive Mansion before her funeral at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, near where her law office has stood for decades. He survived by his son, Oliver Hill Jr., professor of psychology at Virginia State University and executive director of his research foundation. She is buried in the Richmond Lawn Forest cemetery. His paper is held by Virginia State University, and awaits processing.
Lifetime honor
In 1959, the National Bar Association named Hill as the Lawyer of the Year In 1980, the NAACP gave Hill, the William Robert Ming Advocacy Award In 1986, the Defense Law and the NAACP Education Fund gave the Simple Justice Hill Award In 1989, the Richmond Lawyers Association established Hill-Tucker Public Service Award In 1993, the American Bar Association awarded Hill of Thurgood Marshall's Justice Award In 1996, the Oliver Valley Courthouse Richmond, the housing court of Youth and Domestic Relations, was named for him, and every September remembers the Hill.
In 1999 President Bill Clinton gave Hill the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 2000, Hill received the American Bar Association Medal and the National Association of Heroes Law awards. In September (2000), Hill and other NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers accepted the Harvard Medal of Freedom for their role in Brown v. Landmark declaration. Board of Education .
Beginning in 2002, Virginia State Bar has awarded the Oliver White Hill Law School Pro Bono Award annually to a law student demonstrating an outstanding commitment to public service or community.
In 2003, a bronze chest in the Hill was unveiled outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The Black History Museum and the Virginia Cultural Center also have other statues In 2005 Hill received the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor of the NAACP. In October (2005), Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner dedicated a newly renovated Virginia Finance building on Capitol Square in Virginia in honor of Hill. The Oliver W. Hill Building became the first and first state-owned building on Capitol Square in Virginia named for an African American.
Posthumous grace
In July 2008, the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated to Capitol Square, honoring Hill's legacy, fellow lawyers and clients.
The following year, the State Historical Resource Department approved four placards honoring Hill and his legacy: that the Greater Richmond Convention Center marked his former law office. The warning in Norfolk reminded of his first important legal victory, Alston v. Norfolk School Board (1940), and Beckett v. Norfolk School Board (1957). The Prince Edward County commemorates his victory at Davis v. School Board of Prince Edward County . Roanoke commemorates the early years of Hill in the city and early legal practice.
The street at Richmond's Shockoe Bottom (former slave trade neighborhood) called "Oliver Hill Way" is now one of the proposed boundaries for the rebuilding project.
References
External links
- Howard University Law School, Brown in 50 bios, Oliver Hill web page
- "Civil Rights Lawyer Oliver Hill Died at 100", NPR, August 6, 2007
- Virginia Historical Society returns Mass Resilience
- "They Closed Our School," the story of Massive Resistance and the closure of Prince Edward County, Virginia public school
- Bond, Julian, Interview with Oliver W. Hill, Virginia Quarterly Review , Winter 2004.
- quote from Oliver Hill's oral history video at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Oliver Hill 2002 video oral history of Voices of Freedom Collection from VCU Libraries
- Edds, Margaret We're Facing Dawn: Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the Law Team Uncovering Jim Crow University of Virginia Press, 2018
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