*Lutie A. Lytle was born on this date in 1875. She was a Black lawyer and teacher. Lutie A. Lytle was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was one of six surviving children of John R. and Mary Ann “Mollie” (Chesebro) Lytle, both formerly enslaved people. In 1882, the Lytle family moved to Topeka, Kansas. Lutie […]
learn more*Clara Washington Bruce was born on this date in 1879. She was a Black lawyer and administrator. Clara Washington Burrill grew up in a Black middle-class family in Washington, DC, she graduated in 1897 from the city’s M Street High School, a segregated school known for its rigorous curriculum and exceptional faculty. After high school, […]
learn moreNathan McGill born on this date in 1888. He was an African American lawyer and businessman.
Born in Quincy, FL., Nathan Kellogg McGill was the son of Nathan and Agnes (Zeigler) McGill. He graduated from Cookman Institute in 1909, Boston University in 1912, and received his L.L.B. from Boston University in 1912. McGill began practicing law in 1912 and started his own law practice Jacksonville in 1913. McGill was publisher of the Florida Sentinel in Jacksonville from 1916 to 1920.
learn more*On this date in 1898, Williams v. Board of Education was decided. This landmark civil rights and education case was before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In Williams v. Board of Education, black lawyer J.R. Clifford argued against the 1892 Tucker County Board of Education’s decision to shorten the school year for African American schoolchildren from nine […]
learn more*Ronald Davies was born on this date in 1904. He was a white-American lawyer and Judge who was born in Grand Forks, ND. A 1922 Grand Forks Central High School graduate, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota in 1927. Davies attended law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating […]
learn moreTheodore M. Berry, an African American politician, was born on this date in 1905.
He was born in Maysville, a small town on the banks of the Ohio River, to a white father, a farmer he met only once, and a deaf mother who and communicated with him only in sign language. As a child, he sold newspapers, shined shoes, shoveled coal, delivered laundry, shelved books in local libraries, and worked as a desk clerk at the “Black” YMCA in Cincinnati, where he roomed during high school.
learn more*The birth of Lloyd Gaines is celebrated on this date in 1911. He was a Black law student and racial segregation plaintiff. Born in Water Valley, Mississippi, Lloyd Lionel Gaines moved with his mother and siblings to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926 after the death of their father. Part of the Great Migration from rural communities in […]
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Bruce M. Wright in 1917. He was an African American judge, lawyer, and poet.
He was born in Princeton, N.J., and raised in Harlem, New York. Bruce McMarion Wright’s father was Black and his mother was white. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Princeton in 1939, but denied admission when the university learned that he was Black. Wright was denied admission to Notre Dame on the same grounds.
learn more*The birth of Donald Hollowell on this date in 1917 is marked. He was an African American attorney who specialized in Civil Rights.
learn moreWiley Branton was born on this date in 1923. He was an African American attorney and civil rights activist.
Born in Pine Bluff, AR, Wiley Austin Branton was educated in elementary, junior high, and high schools in Pine Bluff schools. An Army veteran of World War II, Branton spent time teaching Blacks how to mark an election ballot after the war, which resulted in his conviction of a misdemeanor for “teaching the mechanics of voting.” In 1950, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Arkansas A.M.& N. College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).
learn more*Jack Greenberg was born on this date in 1924. He was a white Jewish-American attorney and legal scholar born in Brooklyn, New York. Greenberg served in the United States Navy during World War II and fought at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He commanded a landing craft in the invasion of Iheya Shima, one of the final campaigns of the war. During his […]
learn more*Fred Gray was born on this date in 1930. He is a Black civil rights attorney, preacher, and activist. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Fred David Gray attended the Loveless School, where his aunt taught, until the seventh grade. He attended the Nashville Christian Institute (NCI), a boarding school operated by the Churches of Christ. He assisted the NCI president in […]
learn more*E. Ginger Sullivan was born on this date in 1933. She is a Black lawyer and civic health administrator. E. Ginger Williamson was born to Catherine Caesar and James Williamson in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She attended Cranville Elementary School and Pittsfield High School. In 1955, Sullivan received her B.A. degree from Northeastern University. She received her […]
learn more*On this date in 1937, Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937), was decided. This case was an overturned United States Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of requiring the payment of a poll tax to vote in state elections. At the time, Georgia imposed a poll tax of $1.00 per year, generally levied on all inhabitants. […]
learn more*On this date in 1938, Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337, was decided. This was a United States Supreme Court decision holding that states that provided a school to white students also had to provide in-state education to Blacks. States could satisfy this requirement by allowing blacks and whites to attend the same school or creating a second school for […]
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