[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 62 (Wednesday, April 18, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 161--HONORING THE LIFE OF OLIVER WHITE HILL, A 
 PIONEER IN THE FIELD OF AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LAW, ON THE OCCASION OF 
                           HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY

  Mr. WEBB (for himself and Mr. Warner) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 161

       Whereas Oliver White Hill was born on May 1, 1907, in 
     Richmond, Virginia, moved with his family to Roanoke, 
     Virginia, and graduated from Dunbar High School in 
     Washington, DC;
       Whereas Mr. Hill earned his undergraduate degree from 
     Howard University and received a law degree from Howard 
     University School of Law in 1933, graduating second in his 
     class behind valedictorian and future Supreme Court Justice 
     Thurgood Marshall;
       Whereas, in 1934, Mr. Hill became a member of the Virginia 
     Bar and began his law practice in Roanoke, Virginia, and 
     continued in Richmond, Virginia, in 1939, leading the 
     Virginia legal team of the National Association for the 
     Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1940 to 1961 and 
     serving as one of the principal attorneys on the historic 
     Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954;
       Whereas Mr. Hill interrupted his law practice to serve in 
     the United States Armed Forces from 1943 to 1945, and was 
     later appointed by President Harry S. Truman to a committee 
     to study racism in the United States;
       Whereas, in 1948, Mr. Hill became the first African-
     American elected to the Richmond, Virginia, City Council 
     since Reconstruction, and later served in appointed 
     capacities with the Federal Housing Administration and the 
     then-newly-created Department of Housing and Urban 
     Development;
       Whereas Mr. Hill served as legal counsel in many of the 
     Nation's most important civil rights cases concerning equal 
     opportunity in education, employment, housing, 
     transportation, and the justice system;
       Whereas Mr. Hill has remained actively engaged with civic 
     enterprises at the community, State, national, and 
     international levels, and earned numerous accolades and 
     awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from 
     President William Jefferson Clinton in 1999; the NAACP 
     Spingarn Medal in 2005; and the dedication of a building on 
     the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol in his honor by the 
     Commonwealth of Virginia in 2005; and
       Whereas Mr. Hill served as a mentor to generations of 
     attorneys, activists, and public servants: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate honors the life and legacy of 
     Oliver White Hill, a pioneer in the field of American civil 
     rights law, on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

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