Oliver White Hill was born in Richmond on Virginia, May l, 1907. He died on August 5, 2007. Young Oliver W. Hill moved with his family to Roanoke, Virginia at an early age, where he spent his formative years. He moved to Washington D.C. to complete his education, where he attended Howard University. He received a BA degree from the Howard College of Liberal Arts and LLB degree from the School of Law. He was married to the late Beresenia A. Walker, and was the father of one son, Oliver W. Hill, Jr., and a granddaughter, Jananda Hill.
Until his retirement in July, 1998, Mr. Hill was for many years a partner in the law firm of Hill, Tucker and Marsh in Richmond, Virginia. He became a member of the Virginia Bar and began his law practice in Roanoke, Virginia in 1934. Except for time spent in armed service during World War II, and five years spent with the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, he practiced law in Richmond, Virginia, from 1939 to 1998.
Oliver W. Hill was appointed by President Truman to a committee to study racism in the United States. The Committee which was known as President Truman's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, made numerous recommendations including establishment of the Civil Rights Commission. From May 1961 to September 1966, he served with the Federal Housing Administration, first as Assistant to the Federal Housing Commissioner and later, as Assistant Secretary for Mortgage Credit and Federal Housing in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Beginning in the mid-nineteen thirties, shortly after he became admitted to the Bar, he devoted the majority of his career to securing all rights incident to first-class citizenship for all Americans. He served as counsel in many of the most important civil rights cases that resulted in ending legal segregation because based on race. He was a law school classmate of Thurgood Marshall and associated with Marshall in many cases. Oliver W. Hill is best known as the trial counsel in Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County, which was one of the five cases consolidated by the United States Supreme Court which are generally known as Brown v. Board of Education. (The above picture is of Oliver W. Hill and his law partner, Spottswood Robinson during the Davis trial). Spottswood W. Robinson, III., argued the case before the United States Supreme Court.
In addition to Brown, some of the many landmark civil rights cases in which he participated in involved such diverse matters as equalization of salaries for public school personnel; the right to serve on grand and petit juries; inclusion in the program of free bus transportation for public school children; equalization of public school facilities; protection of firemen and other railway workers in rights to employment and to fair and impartial representation by the statutory bargaining agent; the right of participation in primary elections; the elimination of segregation on common carriers in both intrastate and interstate travel; the use of public facilities in a nondiscriminatory and unsegregated fashion, including public schools and places of public assembly and recreation; the securing of housing of their choice; and the right, through an organization such as the NAACP, to assert their constitutional rights and seek redress of their grievances in courts and otherwise, free from harassment by legislative investigatory committees.
Oliver W. Hill also encouraged and helped develop the use of the ballot among minorities and worked to stimulate their participation in organized political party activities.
His initial national recognition was in 1948 when he won a seat on the Richmond City Council in a city-wide election, becoming the first Afro-American so elected since Reconstruction Days.
Oliver W. Hill served as a member, an officer, an advisor, or a member of the Board of numerous organizations, including the national NAACP; the Virginia State Conference of NAACP; the National Bar Association; the Old Dominion Bar Association; the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing; the Commission on Constitutional Revision for the State of Virginia; the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board; the Virginia State Bar Judiciary Committee and the Board of Trustees of the George C. Marshall Foundation.
He was Grand Sire Archon of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (1964-66). He has been the National Man of the Year of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.
Mr. Hill's career has been highlighted by many citations and awards in recognition of his services in the realm of civil rights and to the organizations in which he has been active. Among his many awards:
1986 -- NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund - The Simple Justice Award
1989 -- Hill-Tucker Public Service Award, established by the Richmond Bar Association to recognize and honor those members of the Virginia Bar who have distinguished themselves through their contributions of exemplary civic service. On May 19, 1989, Oliver W. Hill and his law partner S. W. Tucker, were the first recipients of this prestigious award
In 1993 he recieved the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Lawyers' Public Service Responsibility Pro Bono Publico Award
He also recieved American Bar Association's Commission on Opportunities For Minorities In The Profession -The Justice Thurgood Marshall Award
The American Bar Association - Section On Individual Rights and Responsibilities - Justice Thurgood Marshall Award
On August 16, 1996, the Honorable Judges of the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court and the Richmond City Council concurred in designating their new courthouse the Oliver Hill Courts Building
He is honored with bronze bust at Richmond's Black History Museum and Cultural Center and at the Richmond Convention Center.
In 1999 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton
The first and only building in Virginia's Capitol Square to be named after an African American, the former Virginia Finance Building, was rededicated and renamed the Oliver W. Hill, Sr. building on October 28, 2005.
