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| Photo: Charles Hamilton Houston (b. September 3, 1895 - d. Apr 22, 1950) |
As legal scholar, educator, as well as lawyer, Charles Hamilton Houston dedicated his life to fighting racism with the dominion of police pull every bit an musical instrument for jurist as well as social change. African American trial attorneys became early on champions of the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause that articulates this of import protection enjoyed past times all U.S. citizens. Quite telling, Houston was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's police pull professor at Howard University School of Law. Houston mentored Marshall inwards developing the federal trial police pull strategy that enforced U.S. Constitutional rights on behalf of African Americans nationally discriminated inwards interstate commerce.
Early Life of Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Houston owed much of his early on success to his remarkably dedicated parents. He was born on September 3, 1895. His woman raise was Mary Hamilton Houston a stylist (seamstress as well as hairdresser) to Washington D.C. politicians. His manlike someone raise was William Le Pre Houston, a full general exercise attorney for to a greater extent than than iv decades inwards D.C. who also taught law exercise management tat Howard University's police pull school.
Photo of Charles Hamilton Houston (center) with his woman raise as well as father
Houston graduated from high schoolhouse at fifteen years old. In 1915, he was ane of 6 valedictorians graduating from Amherst College inwards Massachusetts. He was also the solely dark pupil inwards his class. By 1917, Houston started teaching "Negro Literature" as well as English linguistic communication at Howard University inwards D.C., the same twelvemonth the U.S. authorities entered World War I. Houston enlisted inwards the state of war inwards 1919 every bit a minute lieutenant inwards acre artillery where he served inwards France.
Photo of the immature Lieutenant Charles Hamilton Houston
Houston understood racism as well as its affect on African Americans. As an U.S. officeholder inwards France, Houston endured the double struggle of the dark U.S. soldiers inwards Europe. Black soldiers fought on ii fronts against both Nazi aggression as well as white racist aggression that was a corking part of armed services life.
Houston Returns from War as well as Studies Law
After an honorable discharge from the military, Houston returned to D.C. He applied to Harvard Law School as well as was accepted. He graduated inwards 1922 with a Bachelor of Laws. By 1923, he had earned a doctorate, distinguished himself every bit a scholar at Harvard where he became the get-go dark editor of the Harvard Law Review.
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Photo of Attorney William Le Pre Houston, father of Charles Hamilton Houston, inwards his police pull office |
In 1924, afterward his render from studying at the University of Madrid, Houston joined his father's D.C. police pull firm. In add-on to starting a civil rights police pull practice, inwards 1924 Houston began teaching at Howard University School of Law, therefore a part-time nighttime school.
Houston Mentors Other Lawyers
Hamilton believed that a lawyer was "either a social engineer or a parasite on society" as well as saw his role as a legal educator every bit part of his social responsibility. By 1929, Howard University had developed into a full-time police pull schoolhouse nether his encouragement as well as was the preparation ground for about a quarter of the nation's dark police pull students.
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| Photo of a immature Thurgood Marshall (standing left) with a seated as well as writing Charles Hamilton Houston (far right) at Howard University (Maryland State Archives) |
Houston's pupils at Howard University included Thurgood Marshall, the nation's get-go African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was also part of the legal team in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark representative of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) -- which comprised many of his beau Howard Law School alums. Other quondam students of Houston was A. Leon Higginbotham, William Hastie, James Nabrit, Robert Carter, George E.C. Hayes, Jack Greenberg, Oliver Hill, as well as Spottswood Robinson. In Brown, the U.S. Supreme Court made the historic ruling that racial segregation inwards primary as well as secondary world schoolhouse was unconstitutional.
Houston's Legal Attack on the "Separate But Equal" Doctrine
As a constitutional scholar, Houston knew that the "separate but equal" doctrine accepted past times the U.S. Supreme Court inwards the landmark representative of Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) was reverse to the dominion of law. In 1934, Houston became special counsel with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP). He surrounded himself with a pick out grouping of immature lawyers, many of his aforementioned quondam Howard Law School students. Houston presently became "senior counsel" to the immature legal strategists that would cease legalized racial segregation inwards the United States.
As the NAACP's special counsel, Houston traveled throughout the U.S. South with a photographic television receiver camera as well as a typewriter. He as well as his squad of lawyers recorded atmospheric condition at world facilities for blacks as well as whites, reasoning that segregationist states were non fifty-fifty coming together the Plessy "separate but equal" standard.
Developing Important Early Civil Rights Case Law
By 1935, Charles Hamilton Houston as well as Thurgood Marshall prevailed inwards Murray v. Pearson, 182 A. 590, 169 Md. 478, 103 A.L.R. 706 (1936), a Maryland Court of Appeals determination where the dark plaintiff challenged his denied entry into the therefore segregated University of Maryland police pull school. Legal counsel for the academy argued that their client's met the split upward but equal requirement when it granted qualified black applicants scholarships to enroll inwards police pull schools out-of-state.
The Maryland ground courts rejected this argument, asset that Maryland’s out-of-state alternative was non an equal chance for police pull students who wanted to exercise police pull inwards Maryland every bit Maryland lawyers. In 1936, the police pull schoolhouse was ordered to acknowledge qualified dark students. Thurgood Marshall was alongside the previously qualified students denied entry into the Maryland police pull school, making the legal victory an peculiarly sugariness ane for the Houston legal team.
In 1939, some other of Houston's of import civil rights cases was ruled upon inwards State of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938). In Gaines, the reasoning inwards the Pearson ground representative was adopted past times the U.S. Supreme Court as well as applied nationwide. In essence, the Court held that Missouri police pull schoolhouse faculty's unique curriculum made "separate but equal" unattainable inwards legal education.
Houston on the Role of Lawyers every bit Social Engineers
Image of attorney Charles Hamilton Houston
According to Houston, "[the] Negro lawyer must last trained every bit a social engineer as well as grouping interpreter. Due to the Negro's social as well as political status . . . the Negro lawyer must last prepared to anticipate, conduct as well as translate his grouping advancement. . . . [Moreover, he must human activeness as] concern advisor . . . for the protection of the scattered resources possessed or controlled past times the group. . . . He must furnish to a greater extent than ways as well as agency for asset inside the grouping the income forthwith flowing through it," wrote Charles Hamilton Houston inwards his "Personal Observations on the Summary of Studies inwards Legal Education every bit Applied to the Howard University School of Law," (May 28, 1929).
In 1940, sick wellness led Houston to retire from the NAACP every bit special counsel. On Apr 22, 1950, Houston died, iv years afterward the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling inwards Brown v. Board of Education. In 1950, the NAACP posthumously awarded him the Spingarn Medal. In 1958, Howard University School of Law's top dog edifice was dedicated every bit Charles Hamilton Houston Hall.
Charles Hamilton Houston's words continues to guide Howard University School of Law's mission:
"'A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's a parasite on society'. . . . H5N1 social engineer was a highly skilled, perceptive, sensitive lawyer who understood the Constitution of the US as well as knew how to explore its uses inwards the solving of 'problems of . . . local communities' as well as inwards 'bettering atmospheric condition of the underprivileged citizens.'"
Thurgood Marshall is reported every bit having remarked that "[w]e owe it all to Charlie."McNeil, Groundwork at 84 (1983), quoting Charles Hamilton Houston (McNeil cites Thurgood Marshall every bit quoted inwards Geraldine Segal, In Any Fight Some Fall at 34 (Mercury Press 1975)).
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