[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2164-E2165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 14, 1998

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Spottswood W. 
Robinson, III. Judge Robinson died in his Richmond, Virginia home on 
Sunday, October 11, 1998. He was 82 years of age.
  Spottswood W. Robinson, III was a federal appeals judge, law school 
dean, civil rights attorney, husband, father, son, friend, and HERO. 
The world is less one phenomenal individual, and I rise because I must 
pay tribute to his life and his many accomplishments. As a Howard 
University Law School graduate, I was inspired by those civil rights 
giants who also inspired and taught Judge Robinson. It is upon the back 
of Judge Robinson on which I rise.
  A graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Judge Robinson 
entered the Howard Law School in 1936, at age 20. His arrival came at a 
time when Charles Hamilton Houston, a pioneering black lawyer, was 
building the law school into a think tank for civil rights. According 
to U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Harry Edwards, ``Robinson 
graduated from Howard Law School with what is still reputed to be the 
highest scholastic average in the school's history.'' He received his 
law degree in 1939 from Howard, magna cum laude.
  Originally planning to return to practice law with his father in 
Richmond, he accepted a two-year teaching fellowship at Howard, which, 
due to World War II, turned into eight years. In 1941, Oliver W. Hill, 
Martin A. Martin and Spottswood W. Robinson III formed the law firm of 
Hill, Martin and Robinson. Mr. Robinson taught full time and practiced 
law part time.
  Mr. Robinson became a full-time lawyer in 1947. The law firm of Hill, 
Martin and Robinson had been handling some civil rights cases when they 
received a letter in 1951 from two black high school girls in Prince 
Edward County, VA, who said their school was inadequate and that 450 
students refused to attend classes. The decision to take this case led 
to their historic involvement in Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. 
The Virginia case was combined with Brown and other cases from South 
Carolina and Delaware.
  The Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education declared 
that segregation in public schools violated the constitution. When the 
court handed down its decisions, the justices also ruled on the four 
other cases.
  Since Robinson had become legal representative of the Legal Defense 
and Educational Fund in Virginia in 1948, he was charged with arguing 
the constitutional history of the 14th Amendment before the Supreme 
Court during the Brown case.
  Robinson's view was that the 14th Amendment had envisioned the 
establishment of complete equality for all people, regardless of race. 
Equality was denied to blacks, he held, as long as their children could 
not go to white schools.
  Continuing his civil rights advocacy, Mr. Robinson helped lead the 
1956 fight against Virginia's so-called NAACP Bills, a set of laws 
passed by Virginia legislators attempting to cripple the activities of 
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The 
U.S. District Court in Virginia eventually threw out the laws in a 
decision that called them unconstitutional.
  Judge Robinson was also an instrumental force in the following 
landmark civil rights decisions:
  McGhee vs. Sipes and Hurd vs. Hodge, 1948 (decided along with Shelley 
vs. Kraemer) in which the Supreme Court ruled that court enforcement of 
race-based restrictive property covenants is unconstitutional.
  Morgan vs. Virginia, 1948 where the Supreme Court ruled that State-
enforced racial segregation in interstate transportation is 
unconstitutional.
  Chance vs. Lambeth, 1951 in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of 
Appeals ruled and the Supreme Court upheld that carrier-enforced racial 
segregation in interstate transportation is unconstitutional.
  Department of Conservation and Development vs. Tate, 1956 where the 
4th Circuit ruled and the Supreme Court upheld that the denial of state 
park facilities on racial grounds is unconstitutional.
  In addition, from 1949 to 1951, he was part of an NAACP team that 
defended the Martinsville Seven, a group of black men accused of raping 
a white woman in Martinsville, VA. The men eventually were executed.
  President John F. Kennedy appointed Robinson to the United States 
Commission on Civil Rights where he served from 1961 to 1963. In 1964, 
he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the first black to 
serve as a judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington. Judge 
Robinson was also the first black to serve as a judge of the U.S. Court 
of Appeals for the District of Columbia and, was chief judge of the 
appellate panel from 1981 until 1986.
  At the courthouse, Judge Robinson was known to friends as ``Spots.'' 
A self-effacing

[[Page E2165]]

and kind man whose conscientious matter led him to once fill a 43 page 
opinion with 403 footnotes.
  Judge Robinson was bestowed with many honors during his life for his 
work in civil rights and commitment to community. In his home State of 
Virginia, the Old Dominion Bar Association gave him its President's 
Award in 1988. The National Bar Association honored him with its Wiley 
A. Branton Award in 1993. In 1995, Mr. Robinson was honored in the 
Virginia Power/North Carolina Power ``Strong Men and Women, Excellence 
in Leadership'' educational series. He also received an honorary 
doctorate of laws in 1986 from New York Law School, for his efforts 
``to achieve true equality under the law for all Americans'' and 
addressing ``the conscience of the nation.''
  In his personal life, Judge Robinson was an accomplished woodworker 
and an amateur architect who designed his own split-level home in 
Richmond. He loved fishing so much that the built his own fishing boat 
in his basement in 1953 and utilized it for 25 years.
  Judge Robinson is survived by his wife, Marian Wilkerson Robinson; a 
son, Spottswood W. Robinson IV of Richmond; a daughter, Nina Govan of 
Greenbelt, MD; and a sister, Mrs. Isadore Burke of Freeport, Bahamas.
  Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III, is gone, but his legacy shall 
remain. His hard work and dedication paved the way for those of us who 
came after him. As an African-American male, an attorney, and an 
elected member of this esteemed body, it is incumbent upon me to honor 
Judge Robinson for allowing me to tread mightily in his footsteps.

                          ____________________