Brown Past 50 Symposium and Education Workshops

OLIVER HILL,

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION LEGAL TEAM MEMBER DIES

OLIVER W. HILL SR:   A civil rights lawyer who was at the front of the legal effort that desegregated public schools, has died at age 100, a family friend said. Hill died peacefully Sunday at his home during breakfast, said Joseph Morrissey, a friend of the Hill family. In 1954, he was part of a series of lawsuits against racially segregated public schools that became the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which changed America's society by setting the foundation for integrated education.

Oliver White Hill was born in Richmond in 1907. He was an undergraduate at Howard University, when his uncle, who was a lawyer, died. Hill's aunt gave him her husband¹s law books. "I was a happy-go-lucky sophomore. Then I read the Constitution and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments and realized that Congress had given us rights which the Supreme Court had taken away from us. I knew right then that I wanted to become a lawyer and end legalized segregation." Under the tutelage of Charles Hamilton Houston, dean of Howard Law School, Hill graduated in 1933, second in his class behind his friend, Thurgood Marshall. His landmark cases involved matters such as desegregation on buses and trains; free bus transportation for black public school children; the right of black citizens to serve on juries and participate in primary elections; and the desegregation of public assembly and of recreational facilities. He served as director of the Virginia chapter of the NAACP for 20 years. During this time, he and a team of 13 lawyers filed more civil rights cases in Virginia than were filed in any other Southern state. His most famous case, Davis v. Prince Edward County Schools, became part of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 1942, Hill founded the Old Dominion Bar Association. In 1948, he was the first black elected to Richmond City Council since the Reconstruction era. At age 91 he retired from his Richmond law firm, Hill, Tucker and Marsh, after practicing law for nearly 60 years.

"[Mr. Hill] was among the vanguard in seeking equal opportunity for all individuals, and he was steadfast in his commitment to effect change. He will be missed," said L. Douglas Wilder, who in 1989 became the nation's first elected black governor and was a confidant of Hill's. Wilder is now Richmond's mayor.

In 1940, Hill won his first civil rights case in Virginia, one that required equal pay for black and white teachers. Eight years later, he was the first black elected to Richmond's City Council since Reconstruction.

A lawsuit argued by Hill in 1951 on behalf of students protesting deplorable conditions at their high school for blacks in Farmville became one of five cases decided under Brown.

Those battles to end the Jim Crow era were dangerous ones for Hill and other civil rights leaders. Hill once received so many threats that he and his wife, Berensenia, would not allow their son to answer the telephone.

Nor did his battle for civil rights bring him wealth. "The quest for freedom and equlaity for my people is wealth enough for me," Hill once told law students at the University of Virginia School of Law. 

TODAY:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292178,00.html 

Achieving the Promise - Oliver Hill Dies at 100  http://labor.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/citation/3/2/13

READ MORE BACKGROUND ABOUT BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

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Citizens for Better Schools

"Structuring Schools for Success -

Making the Vision Work for All Students:"

To Register In Advance for Workshops:    SEATING IS LIMITED - REGISTER NOW BY SENDING AN E-MAIL TO rejacksumc@aol.com

Use this e-mail address rejacksumc@aol.com to send your contact and affiliation and registration information.  Confirmation will be sent by return e-mail.  You can write or call CFBS also  (P. O. Box 190280 Birmingham, Alabama 35219 (205) 478-7183)  ADVANCE REGISTRATION WORKBOOK MATERIAL COSTS:  ATTENDANCE IS FREE TO STUDENTS AND LAY PUBLIC - Students with ID may purchase workbook material for$15.00 for both days (Friday and Saturday); workbook materials for Educators and Professionals $75.00 for both days (Friday and Saturday; day of $95), includes registration and course materials; workbook materials for lay general public is $30, covers both days, includes registration and course materials ($40 day of) - Money Orders and Certified Funds are preferred, currency acceptable.  

 Host Church - Saint Paul United Methodist Church  THURSDAY, MAY 17

CFBS Will honor the life of the late Miss Yolanda King as part of our Brown Past 50 Lyceum and Musical Thursday, May 17, 2007 at Saint Paul United Methodist Church 

"Brown Past 50" Lyceum Commemoration and Musical Tribute to Brown v. Board of Education at 6:00 PM, Saint Paul United Methodist Church (photo right, of Saint Paul United Methodist Church * 1500 6th Avenue North (205) 252-3236 (Birmingham Civil Rights District)

BROWN PAST 50 QUALITY EDUCATION 2007 WORKSH0P: