Earl Burrus Dickerson (June 22, 1891 – September 1, 1986) was an American attorney, activist, military officer and businessman who successfully argued before the
United States 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 U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
in ''
Hansberry v. Lee'',
and was a member of the
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
and acting chairman of the federal
Fair Employment Practice Committee
The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) was created in 1941 in the United States to implement Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and com ...
.
Early life
Earl Burrus Dickerson was born on June 22, 1891 in
Canton, Mississippi
The city of Canton is the county seat of Madison County, Mississippi, United States, and is situated in the northern part of the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area, metropolitan area surrounding the state capital, Jackson, Mississippi, Jackso ...
, the son of Edward and Emma Garrett Fielding Dickerson. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Garrett Sr., was born into
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
and purchased the freedom of himself and his wife, Eliza Montgomery prior to the end of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
in 1865. Earl's father died in 1896 and Earl was raised by his mother, his maternal grandmother, Eliza, and a half-sister from his father's first marriage, Gertrude.
[Dingwall, Christopher; Rachel Watson]
Guide to the Earl B. Dickerson Papers
, Chicago Public Library, ''Mapping the Stacks''. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
Dickerson first moved to Chicago in 1907 and spent most of the next 10 years there, graduating from a
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
-sponsored prep school in 1909. He earned a
bachelor of arts degree
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...
from the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
in 1914. During his time spent studying at the University of Illinois, Dickerson helped establish the Beta chapter of
Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...
fraternity and served as the chapter's first president.
Following the completion of his college credits, but prior to receiving his degree, Dickerson taught English, debate, and mathematics at the
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...
for the 1913–14 school year.
In the fall of 1915, Dickerson began attending the
University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...
. At the end of his second year of law school, Dickerson's legal studies were interrupted by
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 ...
. Dickerson was commissioned into the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
and attended the
Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School
The Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School was a military base and training facility on the south side of Des Moines, Iowa. Established in 1901, the base trained African American officers for the U.S. Army during World War I and ...
. He was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in 1917. Dickerson was stationed at
Camp Grant in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
and assigned to
Company
A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...
E of the
365th Infantry Regiment 365th may refer to:
* 365th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit
*365th Electronic Warfare Group previously 1st Search Attack Group, United States Army Air Forces unit that served during World War II. 365 EWG was a 'paper' d ...
's 2nd
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
, which formed part of
92nd Infantry Division. He served in France as a member of the
American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...
.
After the conclusion of the war in 1918, Dickerson became the only black founding member of the
American Legion
The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...
and personally organized the George L. Giles Post 87 in Chicago. Returning to the University of Chicago, Dickerson completed his legal studies in 1920, becoming one of the first African Americans to graduate from the Law School.
The University of Chicago Black Law Students Association is named in his honor.
Law career
In 1921, Dickerson accepted a position as general counsel of the newly formed Liberty Life Insurance Company of Illinois (later
Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company), which later became the largest African American owned insurance company in the North. This was not Dickerson's first association with the company. In 1919, while still a law student, he had helped draft the company's articles of incorporation. Dickerson considered his work with Supreme Liberty Life Insurance to be his most outstanding contribution to American society. While working for Supreme Liberty Life Insurance, Dickerson opened a law office and shared office space with fellow University of Chicago Law graduate Wendell E. Green, who later became a Circuit Court judge.
In 1923, Dickerson joined a partnership with
Edward H. Morris and James B. Cashin to form Morris, Cashin, and Dickerson. Concurrent with this partnership, Dickerson served as an assistant corporation counsel for the city of Chicago. In 1927, Dickerson was instrumental in establishing
Burr Oak Cemetery
Burr Oak Cemetery is a cemetery located in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1927, Burr Oak was one of the few early Chicago cemeteries focused on the needs of the African-American community, ...
, one of the few African American cemeteries in southwestern
Cook County
Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...
. Later, during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Dickerson helped persuade Supreme Liberty Life Insurance to step in and save the cemetery after Burr Oak defaulted on its mortgage.
Dickerson was known as "the dean of Chicago’s Black lawyers," and in 1933 became the first African American appointed as Illinois Assistant Attorney General under Governor
Henry Horner
Henry Horner (November 30, 1878 – October 6, 1940) was an American politician. Horner served as the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from January 1933 until his death in October 1940. Horner was noted as the first Jewish governor of Illinois. ...
. Dickerson served in that role until 1939.
[Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, Cornel West; Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, 1996, pp.175]
Famously, Dickerson successfully argued before the U. S. Supreme Court in the landmark ''
Hansberry v. Lee'' case. ''Hansberry'' involved a Chicago home purchased by real estate broker
Carl Augustus Hansberry in a neighborhood with a racially restrictive covenant. Racially restrictive covenants were used to restrict black residents from living in certain neighborhoods (in turn creating a
Black Belt of crowded, dilapidated, and under-resourced neighborhoods for black residents). Hansberry purchased a house in
Woodlawn, which was under a racially restrictive covenant, with money borrowed from the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.
Hansberry served on the board of the Chicago NAACP with Dickerson and was the father of playwright
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...
. The events giving rise to ''Hansberry v. Lee'' inspired Lorraine Hansberry's play ''
A Raisin in the Sun
''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Ch ...
''.
Dickerson determined that there was a better chance to win the case based on a procedural issue surrounding class suits rather than argue the constitutionality of racially restrictive covenants.
The decision in ''Hansberry v. Lee'' ended a racially restrictive covenant on the
South Side of Chicago and paved the way for the Supreme Court to declare to racially restrictive covenants unconstitutional 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 ...
'' and ''Sipes v. McGhee'' in 1948.
Dickerson joined the
Cook County Bar Association in 1920 and was elected as its president in 1938 and 1939. Dickerson led the movement to integrate the
Chicago Bar Association
Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) is a voluntary bar association with over 20,000 members. Like other bar associations, it concerns itself with professional ethics, networking among members, and continuing legal education. It is ...
and became a member in 1945. In 1945, Dickerson was elected President of 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, ...
, an organization that included most of the approximately 1,500 black lawyers then practicing in the United States.
Dickerson was the president of the
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
from 1951 to 1954, which countered the political positions and racial restrictions of the
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 ...
.
Dickerson was a prominent and dedicated activist for civil rights. Dickerson joined the
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 ...
in 1920 and the
Chicago Urban League in 1921. In 1926, Dickerson was appointed the chair of the Legal Redress Committee in the NAACP. From 1941 to 1971, Dickerson served as a national board member of the NAACP. He was also elected to be the president of the Chicago Urban League in 1939 and served until 1955 (with the exception of 1948–49).
Dickerson was an involved member of his fraternity,
Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...
. In addition to serving as the first president of the Beta chapter at the University of Illinois, Dickerson helped organize the first alumni chapter of the organization. In 1924, Dickerson was awarded Kappa Alpha Psi's highest award, the Laurel Wreath. He served as the grand polemarch, or president, of Kappa Alpha Psi from 1924 to 1926. When
James B. Parsons, the first African American district judge in a U.S. district court, applied for a faculty membership in Kappa Alpha Psi, Dickerson attended his induction as a national officer of Kappa Alpha Psi.
In addition to his various other career achievements, Dickerson was elected president and chief executive officer of Supreme Liberty Life Insurance in 1955 and held this position until 1971.
Political career
Dickerson formed the South Side Legislative Commission in 1938, which created and advocated for pieces of legislation to the Illinois General Assembly.
In 1939, Dickerson was elected to be the first black Democratic alderman of
Chicago's Second Ward. During his tenure as an alderman, Dickerson worked to address poor housing conditions for black Americans and the existence of racially restrictive covenants. Dickerson launched the Second Ward Community Fund, which helped low-income individuals afford food and clothing.
While initially discounting a Congressional run, Dickerson unsuccessfully primaried
William L. Dawson for the
1942
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...
Democratic nomination for the
First Congressional District.
Dickerson was appointed as a member of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
’s first
Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) and served as its acting chairman. Through his work with the FEPC, Dickerson sought to increase the conditions and employment rate for black Americans.
In 1963, Dickerson participated in the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
and stood on stage near
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
during the “
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a Public speaking, public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, Kin ...
” speech. That same year, Dickerson led the Chicago Exposition of the Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Dickerson was one of the first recipients of the Thurgood Marshall Award, given by 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 ...
, for supporting civil rights laws. In 1971, Dickerson was named “Black Businessman of the Year.” Due to his service to the City of Chicago, Mayor
Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city’s mayor at the age of ...
declared May 1, 1983 to be “Earl B. Dickerson” day.
Personal life
Dickerson married Inez Moss in 1912. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1927.
On June 15, 1930, Dickerson married Kathryn Kennedy Wilson. Kathryn had one son, Rodger Wilson, Jr., from a previous marriage. Together, Dickerson and Kennedy had one daughter, Diane, who was born in 1934.
He died in his Chicago home on September 1, 1986,
and was buried next to his wife Kathryn in Burr Oak, the cemetery he helped found.
References
Further reading
*Blakely, Robert J. (with Marcus Shepard). ''Earl B. Dickerson: A Voice for Freedom and Equality''. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickerson, Earl B.
1891 births
1986 deaths
American civil rights activists
United States Army personnel of World War I
Chicago City Council members
Illinois Democrats
Lawyers from Chicago
Military personnel from Illinois
American organization founders
People from Canton, Mississippi
United States Army soldiers
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
University of Chicago Law School alumni
20th-century Illinois politicians
20th-century American lawyers
Burials at Burr Oak Cemetery
20th-century African-American politicians
20th-century African-American lawyers