Plaintiffs' Counsel
Oliver W. Hill
Born in Richmond, Hill earned his law degree in 1933 at Howard University. Hill worked closely with the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP. He served as an NAACP attorney for many influential cases: Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward, Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk, NAACP v. Button. Hill challenged discrimination in education, the workplace, public facilities, transportation, voting rights, and the criminal justice system. Hill and other NAACP legal staff worked to integrate public schools that resisted the desegregation decision made in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Politically, Hill encouraged African Americans to express themselves at the tolls. He ran for city and state-level positions. The people of Richmond elected Hill to represent them at the city council level in 1948. Additionally, in 1952, President Harry S. Truman appointed Hill to the Committee on Government Contract Compliance. Hill also served on the Democratic Party’s biracial committee for the national convention. President John F. Kennedy appointed Hill as the assistant for intergroup relations to the commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration in 1961. Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr. appointed Hill to the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision: the group that wrote the Virginia Constitution of 1971. Hill worked for his legal firm off and on when not working for the NAACP or politically. He retired in 1998.
Awards:
- 1998 - Juvenile Courts building in Richmond is named after Hill.
- 1999 - President Bill Clinton awarded Hill the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- 2003 - The General Assembly named Hill Virginia of the Year.
- 2005 - Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor.
- 2005 - Richmond names the Finance Building on Capitol Square the Oliver W. Hill Sr. Building.
Martin A. Martin
In 1943, Martin A. Martin, from Danville, Virginia, was the first African American Criminal Trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice. Notable cases Martin worked on are his appeals work for Odell Waller and the Martinsville Seven. Martin served as the head of the Danville NAACP branch. After joining the Richmond law firm with Hill and Robinson, Martin assisted with civil rights and desegregation cases. He filed Warden v. Richmond School Board, which pushed forth the desegregation of Richmond’s public school system.
Awards
- 1992 - The Virginia Civil Rights Hall of Fame inducted Martin and others involved in the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County case.
Spottswood Robinson III
Spottswood William Robinson III fought against segregation policies as a lawyer and by ruling fairly as a judge. Robinson graduated from Howard Law in 1939. He held the highest grade point average (93.5), his record being broken in 2010. After graduating, Robinson taught off and on at his alma mater.
Robinson most notably argued Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in front of the Supreme Court. The case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the desegregation of public schools. Additionally, Robinson argued Morgan v. Virginia, which called for the desegregation of public transportation. Robinson worked on Hurd v. Hodge and McGhee v. Sipes, which argued against housing segregation. Robinson helped argue Briggs v. Elliott, one of the first cases arguing for desegregation. Additionally, Robinson fought against massive resistance to school desegregation and the closing of the following public school systems: Warren County, Charlottesville, Prince Edward, and Norfolk.
President John F. Kennedy nominated Robinson to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Following that, Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Robinson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Awards
- 2008 - The U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia is named after Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige, Jr.
- Honorary degrees from Howard University, Georgetown University, and the New York Law School.