Charles Hamilton Houston
Charles Houston | |
|---|---|
Houston in 1939 | |
| Born | Charles Hamilton Houston September 3, 1895 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | April 22, 1950 (aged 54) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Lincoln Memorial Cemetery |
| Education | Amherst College (BA) Harvard University (LLB, LLM, SJD) |
Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950) was an American lawyer. He was the dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP first special counsel. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws, 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, future founder and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the first Black Supreme Court Justice. He recruited young lawyers to work on the NAACP's litigation campaigns, building connections between Howard's and Harvard's university law schools.