“A lawyer’s either a social engineer, or he’s a parasite on society.”
Charles Hamilton Houston, born September 3, 1895, enrolled in Amherst College at the age of 16 as the only Black student in his class, and graduated with honors in 1915. After teaching at Howard University, a historically black university, for two years, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War 1. Regarding his experience in the segregated military, Houston reflected, “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 leaving the military in 1919, Houston enrolled and became one of a handful of African American students at Harvard Law School. He earned his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1922 and his Doctor of Juridical Science degree in 1923. He was the first African American editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review and the first to receive the SJD. He later joined Howard University's Law School faculty, where he emphasized the concept of lawyers as social engineers and "turned Howard Law School into a West Point of civil rights training that produced a cadre of lawyers to carry out operations that he conceived and gave the black community service that had otherwise been unavailable." Jack Greenberg, In Tribute: Charles Hamilton Houston, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 2161, 2161 (1998). Among many he mentored at Howard Law was Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African American justice appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Houston relentlessly attacked Jim Crow segregation and the “separate but equal” doctrine affirmed by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Among other things, he traveled extensively, speaking on racial injustice and documenting inequalities in racially-segregated schools throughout the South. Known as “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow,” he was involved in nearly every civil rights case before the Supreme Court between 1930 and 1954, winning seven of the eight cases he personally argued before the Court. Unfortunately, Houston did not live to see Plessy v. Ferguson overturned in Brown vs. Bd. of Education (1954). He suffered a fatal heart attack on April 22, 1950. Brown was argued by his protege, Thurgood Marshall.
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