Charles H. Houston
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Charles H. Houston
OR:
Charles H. Houston on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950)NAACP History: Charles Hamilton Houston
, NAACP.org. Retrieved March 6, 2014. was an American lawyer. He was the dean of
Howard University Law School Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the old ...
and
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
first special counsel. A graduate of
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
and
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
, Houston played a significant role in dismantling
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...
, especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants. He earned the title "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow". Houston is also well known for having trained and mentored a generation of black attorneys, including
Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...
, future founder and director of the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is an American civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Although LDF ca ...
and the first Black
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
. He recruited young lawyers to work on the NAACP's litigation campaigns, building connections between Howard's and Harvard's university law schools.


Biography


Early years

Houston was born in Washington, D.C., to a middle-class family who lived in the Strivers' section. His father William Le Pré Houston, the son of a former slave, had become an attorney and practiced in the capital for more than four decades. Charles' mother, Mary (born Hamilton) Houston, worked as a seamstress."Charles Hamilton Houston"
''Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education'', Smithsonian National Museum of American History; exhibit has photos of Houston with his parents Houston attended segregated local schools, entering
M Street High School M Street High School, also known as Dunbar High School, is a historic former school building located in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington, D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites since 1978 and it was li ...
(now
Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...
) at the age of 12 and graduating at age 15. He studied at
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
beginning in 1911, was elected to the
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
honor society, and graduated as
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...
in 1915 at the age of 20, the only black student in his class. He returned to D.C. and taught English at
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
, a
historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
. As the U.S. entered
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Houston joined the U.S. Army as an officer. The military was
racially segregated Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people ...
. From 1917 to 1919, he served as a
First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...
in the United States Infantry, based in
Fort Meade, Maryland Fort Meade is a census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 9,324 at the 2020 census. It is the home to the National Security Agency, Central Security Service, United States Cyber Command an ...
, with service in France. After being chastised for, during a brief detail as a
Judge Advocate Judge-advocates are military lawyers serving in different capacities in the military justice systems of different jurisdictions. Australia The Australian Army Legal Corps (AALC) consists of Regular and Reserve commissioned officers that prov ...
, finding a Black sergeant not worthy of prosecution, Houston wrote later:
The hate and scorn showered on us Negro officers by our fellow Americans convinced me that there was no sense in my dying for a world ruled by them. I made up my mind that if I got through this war I would study law and use my time fighting for men who could not strike back.
After his return to the U.S. in 1919, he entered
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
. He was the first black student elected to the editorial board of the ''
Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...
'' and graduated ''
cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
''. Houston was also a member of
Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the ...
fraternity. He earned a bachelor's of law in 1922 and a DJS from Harvard in 1923. That same year he was awarded a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship to study at the University of Madrid. After his return, he was admitted to the Washington, DC bar in 1924 and joined his father's practice.Conyers 2012, p5


Personal life

In 1924 Houston married Gladys Moran. They divorced in 1937. He next married Henrietta Williams. They had Houston's only child in 1940, Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr.American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
in 1925, they founded the
National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African Americans, African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, ...
. Houston was a founding member of the affiliated Washington Bar Association. He was recruited to the Howard University faculty by the school's first African-American president, Mordecai Johnson. From 1929 to 1935, Houston served as Vice-Dean and Dean of the
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
School of Law. He developed the school, beginning its years as a major national center for training black lawyers. He extended its part-time program to a full-time curriculum and gained accreditation by the Association of American Law Schools and the American Bar Association. Bringing prominent attorneys to the school as speakers and to build a law network for his students, Houston served as a mentor to a generation. He influenced nearly one-quarter of all the black lawyers in the United States at the time, including former student
Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...
, who became a United States Supreme Court justice. Houston believed that the law could be used to fight racial discrimination and encouraged his students to work for such social purpose. Houston left Howard in 1935 to serve as the first special counsel for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
(NAACP), serving in this role until 1940. In this capacity he created litigation strategies to attack racial housing covenants and segregated schools, arguing several important civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Through his work at the NAACP, Houston played a role in nearly every civil rights case that reached the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
between 1930 and ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'' (1954).NAACP History: "Charles Hamilton Houston"
, NAACP; accessed May 14, 2017 Houston worked to bring an end to the exclusion of African Americans from juries across the South. He defended African-American George Crawford on charges of murder in
Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County ...
, in 1933, and saved him from the electric chair. In the related '' Hollins v. State of Oklahoma'' (1935), Houston led an all-black legal team before the US Supreme Court to appeal another murder case in which the defendant was convicted by an
all-white jury Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...
and sentenced to death. The defense team had challenged the all-white jury during the trial, but the conviction was upheld by the appeals court. Hearing the case ''a certiorari'', the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and ordered a new trial. Hollins was tried a third time, again before an all-white jury, and was convicted in 1936. He was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1950. lfred L. Brophy, "Hollins v. State of Oklahoma (1935)" ''The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture,'' www.okhistory.org (accessed May 15, 2017) At the time, Oklahoma and southern states systematically excluded blacks from juries, in part because they were not on the voter rolls, having been
disenfranchised Disfranchisement, also disenfranchisement (which has become more common since 1982) or voter disqualification, is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing someo ...
across the South since the turn of the century by state barriers to voter registration. In the 21st century, attorneys continue to have to challenge prosecutorial strategies that exclude blacks from juries. Houston's strategy on public education was to attack
segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of human ...
by demonstrating the inequality resulting from the "
separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protectio ...
" doctrine dating from the Supreme Court's ''
Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that ...
'' (1897). He orchestrated a campaign to force southern districts to build facilities for blacks equal to those for whites, or to integrate their facilities. He focused on law schools because, at the time, mostly males attended them. He believed this would obviate the fears whites expressed that integrated schools would lead to
interracial dating Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different " races" or racialized ethnicities. In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United States, Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa as miscegenation (Lat ...
and marriage. In ''
Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada ''Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada'', 305 U.S. 337 (1938), was a United States Supreme Court decision holding that states which provided a school to White students had to provide in-state education to Black students as well. States could satis ...
'' (1939), Houston argued that it was unconstitutional for Missouri to exclude blacks from the state's university law school when, under the "separate but equal" provision, no comparable facility for blacks existed within the state. In the documentary
The Road to Brown
, Hon.
Juanita Kidd Stout Juanita Kidd Stout (March 7, 1919 – August 21, 1998) was an American attorney and jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1989. She had previously operated a private legal practice in Philadelphia, Penns ...
described Houston's strategy related to segregated schools:
When he attacked the "separate but equal" theory his real thought behind it was that "All right, if you want it separate but equal, I will make it so expensive for it to be separate that you will have to abandon your separateness." And so that was the reason he started demanding equalization of salaries for teachers, equal facilities in the schools and all of that.
Houston founded a law firm, Houston & Gardner, with Wendell P. Gardner, Sr. It later included, as name partners, William H. Hastie,
William B. Bryant William Benson Bryant (September 18, 1911 – November 13, 2005) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and served as the first African-American Chief Judge of the court. Early life, e ...
, Emmet G. Sullivan, and Joseph C. Waddy, each of whom were later appointed as federal judges. The firm was prestigious but their work not well-compensated. http://www.dccourts.gov/internet/documents/dcsc_bio_gardner.pdf Biography of Wendell Gardner] at
Superior Court of the District of Columbia The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It hears cases involving Criminal justice, criminal, Civil law (common law), civi ...
websiteBiography of Emmet Sullivan
at
District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in Washington, D.C. Along with the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and the High Court of American Sa ...
website In all, ten members of the firm advanced to become judges, including Theodore Newman and
Wendell Gardner, Jr. Wendell may refer to: Places in the United States *Wendell, Idaho *Wendell, Massachusetts *Wendell, Minnesota *Wendell, North Carolina People and fictional characters *Wendell (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...
, the son of Wendell Gardner.Biography of Theodore Newman
at
District of Columbia Court of Appeals The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is the highest court of the District of Columbia, the capital city of the United States. The court was established in 1942 as the Municipal Court of Appeals, and it has been the court of last resort ...
website Houston's efforts to dismantle the legal theory of "separate but equal" were completed after his death in 1950 with the historic ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954) ruling, which prohibited segregation in public schools. At one point Houston had carried a movie camera as he traveled across South Carolina, in order to document the inequalities of facilities, materials and teachers' salaries between African-American and white education. As Special Counsel to the NAACP, Houston dispatched
Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...
,
Oliver Hill Oliver Hill may refer to: * Oliver Hill (architect) (1887–1968), British architect *Oliver Hill (attorney) Oliver White Hill Sr. (May 1, 1907 – August 5, 2007) was an American civil rights Lawyer, attorney from Richmond, Virginia. His work ...
and other young attorneys to work a litigation campaign of court challenges to equalize teachers' salaries."Salaries Compared"
Little John Explorers Houston also directed the NAACP's campaign to end restrictive housing covenants. In the early 20th century, the organization had won a United States Supreme Court case, ''
Buchanan v. Warley ''Buchanan v. Warley'', 245 U.S. 60 (1917), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States addressed civil government-instituted racial segregation in residential areas. The Court held unanimously that a Louisville, Kentucky, city ordi ...
'' (1917), which prohibited state and local jurisdictions from establishing restrictive housing. Real estate developers and agents developed restrictive covenants and deeds. The Court ruled in ''
Corrigan v. Buckley ''Corrigan v. Buckley'', 271 U.S. 323 (1926), was a US Supreme Court case in 1926 that ruled that the racially-restrictive covenant of multiple residents on S Street NW, between 18th Street and New Hampshire Avenue, in Washington, DC, was a lega ...
'' (1926) that such restrictions were the acts of individuals and beyond the reach of the constitutional protections. As the NAACP continued with its campaign in the 1940s, Houston drew from contemporary sociological and other studies to demonstrate that such covenants and resulting segregation produced conditions of overcrowding, poor health, and increased crime that adversely affected African-American communities.Leland B. Ware (1989), "Invisible Walls: An Examination of the Legal Strategy of the Restrictive Covenant Cases"
''Washington University Law Review'', Vol. 67, Issue 3: Symposium on the State Action Doctrine of ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', p. 744 Following Corrigan, Houston contributed to what was a 22-year campaign, in concert with lawyers he had trained, in order to overturn the constitutionality of restrictive covenants. This was achieved in the US Supreme Court ruling in ''
Shelley v. Kraemer ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', 334 U.S. 1 (1948), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive housing covenants (deed restrictions) cannot legally be enforced. The case arose after an African-American family purch ...
'' (1948). The court ruled that "judicial enforcement of private right constitutes state action for the purpose of the fourteenth amendment." Houston's use of sociological materials in these cases lay the groundwork for the approach and ruling in ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'' (1954).Ware (1989), "Invisible Walls", p.772


Death

Houston died from a heart attack on April 22, 1950, at the age of 54.


Legacy and honors

*In 1950, Houston was posthumously awarded the NAACP's
Spingarn Medal The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for an outstanding achievement by an African Americans, African American. The award was created in 1914 by Joel Elias Spingarn, ...
. *In 1958, the main building of the Howard University School of Law was dedicated as Charles Hamilton Houston Hall. *The Charles Houston Bar Association and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, established at Harvard Law School in 2005, were named for him.
Elena Kagan Elena Kagan ( ; born April 28, 1960) is an American lawyer who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination ...
, formerly the Dean of
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
, was also the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law there; she is now an
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1 ...
. *The
Washington Bar Association The Washington Bar Association (WBA) is a voluntary bar association located in the Washington, District of Columbia area, whose members are predominantly African-American attorneys. The Washington Bar Association was founded in 1925 by a group of ...
annually awards the Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit to an individual who has advanced the cause of Houstonian jurisprudence. *In 2002, scholar
Molefi Kete Asante Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American philosopher who is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently a professor in the Dep ...
included Charles Hamilton Houston on his list of ''
100 Greatest African Americans ''100 Greatest African Americans'' is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans (in alphabetical order; that is, they are not ranked), as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A ...
''. *In 2023, Loudoun County named the courthouse where Houston defended George Crawford the "Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse." In 2024, the National Park Service listed the courthouse as a National Historic Landmark.


Footnotes


Further reading

* David Bradley, ''The Historic Murder Trial of George Crawford: Charles H. Houston, the NAACP and the Case That Put All-White Southern Juries on Trial.'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2014. * James L. Conyers, Jr. (ed.), ''Charles H. Houston: An Interdisciplinary Study of Civil Rights Leadership.'' Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012. * Richard Kluger, ''Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality.'' New York: Vintage Books, 1977. * Kenneth W. Mack, ''Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012. * Genna Rae McNeil, ''Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights.'' Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. * James Rawn, Jr., ''Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation.'' New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010.


External links


Charles Hamilton Houston information at Cornell UniversityCharles Houston Bar AssociationThe Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law SchoolThe Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, Madison, WI
* ttp://blackartblog.blackartdepot.com/features/black-historical-facts/charles-hamilton-houston-facts.html The Man That Killed Jim Crow: 9 Charles Hamilton Houston Facts For You! {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Charles Hamilton 1895 births 1950 deaths 20th-century African-American lawyers 20th-century American academics 20th-century American lawyers African-American activists African-American legal scholars Alpha Phi Alpha members American civil rights lawyers American legal scholars Amherst College alumni Deans of law schools in the United States Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni Harvard Law School alumni Howard University faculty Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Military personnel from Washington, D.C. NAACP activists National Bar Association