Charles-Hamilton-Houston" (September 3,1895-April 22,1950)

Lawyer and professor,was born in the District of Columbia,the son of William Lepre

Houston,a lawyer and Mary Ethel Hamilton,a hairdresser and former schoolteacher.Charles graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College in 1915.After a year of teaching English at Howard University in Washington,D.C., he served during World War I as a second lieutenant in the 35st Field Arttillery of the American Expeditionary Forces.Having experienced racial discrimination while serving his country,Charles made up [his] mind that [he] would never get caught...without knowing... [his] rights,that [he] would study law and use [his] rights,that [he] would study law and use [his] time fighting for men who could not strike back."He entered Harvard Law School in 1919,where he became the first African American elected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review,and in 1922 he earned an LLB cum laude.In 1922-1923 he studied for the doctorate in juridical science,becoming the first African American to be awarded the SJD at Harvard.Following an additional year of study with a concentration on civil law at the University of Madrid,Charles passed the bar examination for the District of Columbia in 1924.In that year he married  Margaret Gladys Moran.They divorced in 1937,and Charles married Henrietta Williams,with whom he had one child.

Charles practiced law as a partner in the District ofColumbia firm of his daddy (Houston & Houston);Later Houston,Houston,Hastie & Waddy) from 1924-1950,with occasional leaves of absence.He also taught law and became an academic administrator at Howard University Law School,serving on its faculty from 1924-1935.His accomplishments at Howard were remarkable.From 1929-1935 he provided leadership during the transformation of the then nonacredited evening school to a highly respected,full-time American Bar Association-accredited day law school as vice dean and chief administrative officer (1930-1935),Charles inspired the faculty and students with a sense of urgency and a spirit of boldness regarding the duty of African American lawyers as advocates of racial justice.Charles expounded a philosophy of " social engineering," which was grounded in the beliefs that law could be used effectively to secure fundamental social change in society and that the law was an instrument available to minority groups who were unable to use fully the franchise or direct action to achieve recognition of their rights and equality.Among his students during this period were Oliver Hill,William Bryant, and Thurgood Marshall,each of whom would become distinguished civil rights litigators and the latter two would achieve national renown federal jurists.

Charles civil rights advocacy primarily focused on achieving recognition of African Americans' equal rights under law through the elimination of legally enforced discrimination.He argued that the status of African Americans as oppressed minority necessitated the "complete elimination of segregation" through a protracted struggle including a legal campaign supported by a " sustaining mass interest," with "leadership... develop[ing] grom the aspirations,determination,sacrifices and needs of the group itself." He served as the full-time,saraied special counsel of the NAACP from 1935-1940.He proposed in 1934 and thereafter implemented a strategy for overturning the "separate but equal" precedent of Plessyv.Ferguson (1896) to the end that racial discrimination and segregation might be declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.In recognition of courts' reliance on stare decisis and of widespread racism,Charles developed a long-range strategy of building favorable precedents over time until a direct attack on segregation per se could be made based upon such precedents rather than following one proposed earlier by Nathan Margold to make an immediate attack on segregation.Charles strategy was implemented by the NAACP and later its Legal Defense and Educational Fund under Thurgood Marshall's direction.While the NAACP and its Legal Defense Fund were concerned about various manifestations of racial discrimination,a special grant from the American Fund for Public Service was primarily devoted to funding cases involving discrimination in education because of its relation to the fundamental problem of white supremacy.According to Charles in 1935,"Apparent senseless discriminations in education against Negroes have a very definite objective on the part of the ruling whites to curb the young and prepare them to accept an inferior position in American life without protest or struggle."

As a special counsel and later adviser to Thurgood Marshall.Emphasized for the sake of  "effectiveness" both the importance of the use of African Americans lawyers and the commitment to a program of  " intelligent leadership plus intelligent mass action."Charles worked with local African American attroneys and argued before the U.S.Supreme Court Missouri ex rel. Gaines v.Canada in 1938,the first major Supreme Court case in the groundwork laid for Brown v.Board of Education (1954),which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.He thereafter shaped with Thurgood many of the essential legal precedents leading to Brown,including Sipuel v.Oklahoma State Board of Regents (1948),McLaurin v.Oklahoma State Regents (1950).For African Americans in the Consolidated Parent Group of the District of Columbia,Charles initigation against inequality in Public schools,which under James Narbit was later transformed and untimately led to Bolling v.Shape,the companion case to Brown declaring segregation in the district's public schools unconstitutional.

Charles historical significance is chiefly derived from his role as strategist,legal counsel,and adviser in the struggle against racial discrimination in public education.It is noteworthy,that while he was among the first to emphasize the importance of training lawyers to change law and to participate in dissent regarding fundamental policy and practice of the government,he recognized that the judicial process was slow and not designed to change,but rather to uphold the status quo.Because of these "limitations," he cautioned those who would rely on the courts alone encouraged African Americans to "do [their] own fighting and more of it by extra-legal means" ; that is,boycotts, demonstrations,and the like.

Charles contributions to eliminations legal validation of racial discrimination extended into other areas,particularly the struggle for fairness in employment,housing,and the rights of the accused.He served,for a time,on the President's Fair Employment Practices Committee and in 1944 successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Steele v. Louisville and Nashville Railroad as well as Tunstall v.Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers the duty of fair representation regardless of race or union affiliation.In regard to housing discrimination,Charles assisted the NAACP in its preparation for Shelly v.Kramer (1948) and was chief counsel before the U.S. Supreme Court in the companion case,Hurd v.Hodge (1948),in which the Court barred racially restrictive convenants in the states and the District of Columbia.With respect to the rights of persons accused of crimes,Charles litigated Hollins v.Oklahoma (1935) and Hale v.Kentucky (1938),in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions and death sentences of Africa American defendants who had been tried by juries from which African Americans had been excluded on the basis of race.

An active participant in the civil rights struggle of  African Americans beyond the courtroom,Charles engaged in a variety of expressions of political activism during his lifetime,including marching during the 1930s for the freedom of the Scottsboro Boys,writing a regular column of political commentary in the Afro-American,and testifying before injustice.His analysis and experiences compelled to be " content... with... an equal share in the existing system," but to struggle to establish a system that guarantee [d] justice and freedom for everyone." Charles grueling pace in the attack from which he died in Washington,D.C. He was buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland Maryland.