Oliver W. Hill, Sr. (1907-2007)

Biographical Timeline

1907 Hill is born on May 1 in Richmond, Virginia, to Olivia Lewis White-Hill and William Henry White, II.

1931 Hill earns Bachelor’s Degree from Howard University.

1933 Hill receives LLB Degree from Howard University School of Law.  He graduates second in his class behind Thurgood Marshall.

1934 Hill becomes a member of the Virginia Bar and begins practicing law in Roanoke, Virginia.

Hill marries Beresenia A. Walker on Sept. 5.

1940 Hill wins his first civil rights case.  The decision in Alston v. School Board of Norfolk, Virginia, gained pay equity for black teachers.

1943 Hill joins the United States Army during World War II and serves until 1945.

1947 In August, Hill runs for Virginia House of Delegates.  He loses by 190 votes.

1948 On June 10, Hill is elected to the Richmond City Council in a city-wide election, becoming the first African-American elected since the Reconstruction era.

1949 Hill and his wife give birth to a son, Oliver White Hill, Jr.

1951 Hill takes up the case of R.R. Moton High School where black students walked out of their dilapidated school.  He files for lawsuit in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County.

1952 President Harry S. Truman appoints Hill to the new Committee on Government Contract Compliance.

1954 Hill is one of nine attorneys to litigate the Brown v. Board of Education case.

1960 Hill is appointed by the National Democratic Party to the Biracial Committee on Civil Rights, headed by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

1961 Hill becomes Assistant Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration under President John F. Kennedy.

1964 Hill is Grand Sirc Archon of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity until 1966.

1965 Hill joins attorneys Samuel W. Tucker and Henry Marsh, III to form the Hill, Tucker and Marsh Law firm in Richmond, Virginia.

1971 Virginia Governor Mills F. Godwin, Jr. appoints Hill to the Virginia Constitutional Revision Committee.

1986 Hill receives The Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

1989 Hill is awarded the Hill-Tucker Public Service Award, established by the Richmond Bar Association.

1993 Hill’s wife Berensenia Walker dies.

1996 On August 16^th, the Honorable Judges of the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court and the Richmond City Council designate their new courthouse the Oliver Hill Courts Building.

Hill is honored with a bronze bust at Richmond’s Black History Museum and Cultural Center.

1998 Hill retires from the legal profession at age 92.

1999 Hill receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton.

On October 28, the first and only building in Virginia’s Capitol Square is rededicated and renamed the Oliver W. Hill, Sr. Building.

2005 Hill is awarded the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor.

2007 Hill dies in his home at age 100.