Charles Hamilton Houston

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Charles Hamilton Houston

(1895-1950)

Brown@50
Biographical = Sketches

Robert=20 L. Carter
Julian=20 R. Dugas
Jack = Greenberg
William H. = Hastie
George E. = C.=20 Hayes
A. = Leon=20 Higginbotham
Oliver = W.=20 Hill
Charles=20 Hamilton Houston
T= hurgood=20 Marshall
William = Robert Ming,=20 Jr.
Constanc= e=20 Baker Motley
James M.=20 Nabrit, Jr.
S= pottswood=20 W. Robinson, III

Biography

by Steven D. Jamar

Charles Hamilton Houston conceived of and led the = legal=20 strategy leading to the end of legalized racial segregation in the = United=20 States. He and those he taught and mentored laid the legal = groundwork=20 through thought and action that ultimately led to 1954 U.S. = Supreme Court=20 decision in Brown = v.=20 Board of Education that made racial segregation in public = primary=20 and secondary schools unconstitutional. He died four years before = full=20 fruition of his work to end "separate but equal" as a valid = constitutional=20 principle. Houston not only participated in effecting the change, = but was=20 the inspiration and mentor to T= hurgood=20 Marshall, James=20 Nabrit, S= pottswood=20 Robinson, A. = Leon=20 Higginbotham, Robert Carter, William=20 Hastie and many others who carried on the battle and remains = an=20 inspiration to those working for social justice today.

Houston completed high school at the age of 15 and = graduated=20 from as one of six valedictorians from Amherst College in = Massachusetts in=20 1915. He then taught at Howard University in Washington, D.C., for = two=20 years until the onset of World War I. Houston enlisted in the U.S. = Army=20 and served in Europe in World War I as a second lieutenant in = field=20 artillery.

As a result of some of his experiences in the = segregated and=20 racist army, Houston decided that he needed to become an advocate = to=20 enforce the legal rights of the oppressed. In pursuit of this, = following=20 his honorable discharge from the army in 1919, Houston enrolled at = Harvard=20 Law School from which he earned his Bachelor of Laws in 1922 and a = doctorate in 1923. Houston was a stellar student and became the = first=20 black editor of the Harvard Law Review. He studied law at the = University=20 of Madrid until 1924 when he returned to Washington, DC, and = joined his=20 father's law practice.

In 1924 he also began to teach part time at Howard = University School of Law, then a part-time night school. Through = that time=20 HUSL had trained approximately three fourths of the approximately = 950=20 African American lawyers practicing in the United States. Genna = Rae=20 McNeil, Groundwork at 64 (1983). In the next five years, = in part=20 at the urging of Houston, the Howard University Trustees recreated = HUSL as=20 a full-time day school and in 1929 put Houston in charge (with a = title of=20 Resident Vice-Dean, but he had the responsibilities of a = dean--Houston was=20 HUSL's dean in all but title).

During Houston's six year tenure as vice-dean = (1929-35),=20 Howard University Law School was training almost a quarter of the = nation's=20 black law students. Houston also oversaw the dramatic change which = led to=20 HUSL being accredited by the American Bar Association and meeting = the=20 standards for being admitted to the the Association of American = Law=20 Schools. McNeil, Groundwork at 70-71 (1983). It was = during this=20 period that Houston set the course for the law school when he = wrote:=20

[The] Negro lawyer must be trained as a social = engineer=20 and group interpreter. Due to the Negro's social and political = condition=20 . . . the Negro lawyer must be prepared to anticipate, guide and = interpret his group advancement. . . . [Moreover, he must act = as]=20 business advisor . . . for the protection of the scattered = resources=20 possessed or controlled by the group. . . . He must provide more = ways=20 and means for holding within the group the income now flowing = through=20 it.

McNeil, Groundwork at 71 (1983), quoting = Charles=20 Hamilton Houston, "Personal Observations on the Summary of = Studies in=20 Legal Education as Applied to the Howard University School of = Law,"=20 (May 28, 1929).

Houston is recognized as the architect behind the = ultimate=20 success of the long struggle to end legalized discrimination and, = in=20 particular, the "separate but equal" doctrine accepted by the U.S. = Supreme=20 Court in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson. Houston, together = with a=20 select group of mostly Howard lawyers, including T= hurgood=20 Marshall, and working through the NAACP and later the NAACP = Legal=20 Defense and Educational Fund, created a number of precedents that=20 ultimately led to the dismantling of de jure = discrimination after=20 Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, four years after his = death.=20 Among the major steps were Pearson=20 v. Murray (1936) and State=20 ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1939). In Pearson = Houston and=20 Thurgood Marshall established in the Maryland highest court that = the=20 University of Maryland could not exclude African Americans as it = had=20 excluded Marshall just a few years earlier. In Gaines = this=20 principle was extended to the entire country when the U.S. Supreme = Court=20 held that Missouri could not exclude blacks from the state law = school=20 since there was no comparable, and could be no comparable school = for=20 African Americans because of the unique intangibles of a legal = education,=20 in Missouri. Ultimately this precedent was extended to other = schools and=20 ultimately down to public primary and secondary education.

Houston's importance was recognized by his = colleagues,=20 students, and intellectual heirs. He was posthumously awarded the = NAACP's=20 Spingarn Medal in 1950 and in 1958 the main building of the Howard = University School of Law was dedicated as Charles Hamilton Houston = Hall.=20 His importance became more broadly known through the success of = Thurgood=20 Marshall and after the 1983 publication of Genna Rae McNeil's=20 Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for = Civil=20 Rights (U. of Pa. Press 1983).

Charles Hamilton Houston's credo guides the Howard = University School of Law's mission to this day:

"A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's a parasite = on=20 society." ... A social engineer was a highly skilled, = perceptive,=20 sensitive lawyer who understood the Constitution of the United = States=20 and knew how to explore its uses in the solving of "problems = of . .=20 . local communities" and in "bettering conditions of = the=20 underprivileged citizens."

McNeil, Groundwork at 84 (1983), = quoting=20 Charles Hamilton Houston (McNeil cites Thurgood Marshall as = quoted in=20 Geraldine Segal, In Any Fight Some Fall at 34 = (Mercury Press=20 1975))

Charles Hamilton Houston

(1895-1950)

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