Earl B. Dickerson was a prominent African American attorney, community activist and business executive who successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in Hansberry v.
Background
Earl Burrus Dickerson was born on June 22, 1891 in Canton, Mississippi, the son of Edward and Emma Garrett Fielding Dickerson. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Garrett, was born a slave and, before the Civil War ended, purchased himself and his wife, Eliza Montgomery, out of slavery. Earl"s father died in 1896 and Earl was raised by his mother, his mother"s mother, Eliza, and a half-sister from his father"s first marriage, Gertrude.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Univercity Illinois, 1914;
Juris Doctor, University of Chicago, 1920;
Doctor of Humanities, Wilberforce U., 1961;
Doctor of Laws, Northwestern University, 1977;
Doctor of Laws, University Illinois-Chicago, 1984.
Career
Lee. Dickerson first moved to Chicago in 1907 and spent most of the next 10 years there, graduating from a University of Chicago-sponsored prep school in 1909. During his time spent studying at the University of Illinois, Dickerson helped establish the Beta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Dickerson"s legal studies were interrupted by World War I when he enlisted in the United States Army.
He became a lieutenant and served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
Returning to the University of Chicago, Dickerson completed his legal studies in 1920, becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate of law degree there. The University of Chicago Black Law Students Association is named in his honor.
In 1921, Dickerson accepted a position as general counsel of the newly formed Supreme Life Insurance Company, which later became the largest African American owned insurance company in the North. This was not his first association with the company.
In 1919, while still a law student, he had helped draft the company"s articles of incorporation.
While working for Supreme Life Insurance, Dickerson also started a law firm with fellow law school graduate Wendell East. Green, who later became a Circuit Court judge. At the same time, Dickerson began to take an active role in politics and civil rights. In 1927, Dickerson was instrumental in establishing Burr Oak Cemetery, one of the few African American cemeteries in southwestern Cook County.
Later, during the Great Depression, Dickerson helped persuade Supreme Life to step in and save the cemetery after Burr Oak defaulted on its mortgage.
On June 15. In 1939, he became the first African American Democrat to serve on the Chicago City Council. The following year he successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark Hansberry v.
Lee case, which addressed the issue of restrictive covenants. lieutenant involved the Chicago home purchased by real estate broker Carl Augustus Hansberry, father of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, with money borrowed from the Supreme Life Insurance Company.
In 1952, Dickerson became president of Supreme Life Insurance Company.
When Dickerson was elected president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1951-1954, he became the first African American president of an integrated Bar association.
Achievements
Membership
Member City Council Chicago, 1939-1943. Director emeritus Hyde Park Federal Savings & Loan Association. Board directors Southeast Chicago Commission, 1953-1986.
Member President's Committee Fair Employment Practice, 1941-1943. Trustee emeritus La Rabida Jackson Park Sanitarium. Served as lieutenant infantry Advertising Educational Foundation, World War I. Member Chicago Urban League (past president), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (director emeritus), American Bar Association, Illinois Bar Association, Cook County Bar Association (Presidential award 1979, special honoree 25th annual lawday 1983), Chicago Bar Association, National Lawyers Guild (past president), University Illinois Alumni Association (Earl B. Dickerson achievement award 1982), Northwestern University Alumni Association, University Chicago Law School Association, American Legion (founder), Original Forty (Man of Year award 1976) (Chicago), Kappa Alpha Psi (past grand polemarch).
Connections
Married Kathryn Kennedy, June 15, 1930. 1 daughter, Diane.