Oliver Hill, Esq - In Memory of

He was the first black elected to Richmond, VA, City Council since Reconstruction.

Rest in Peace, Brother Oliver Hill
- AAPP



As reported in WaPo Civil Rights Attorney Oliver Hill is shown in this Jan. 15, 1999 file photo, in his office in Richmond, Va. Hill, who was at the front of the court fight that led the Supreme Court to end racially segregated schools, died Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007. He was 100. (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Eric Brady, File) (Eric Brady - AP)

In 1954, he was part of a series of lawsuits against racially segregated public schools that became the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which changed America's society by setting the foundation for integrated education.

"He was among the vanguard in seeking equal opportunity for all individuals, and he was steadfast in his commitment to effect change. He will be missed," said L. Douglas Wilder, who in 1989 became the nation's first elected black governor and was a confidant of Hill's. Wilder is now Richmond's mayor.

In 1940, Hill won his first civil rights case in Virginia, one that required equal pay for black and white teachers. Eight years later, he was the first black elected to Richmond's City Council since Reconstruction. More HERE