Thomas Ben Dyett

Background

Thomas Dyett was born in 1886 in Monserrat, West Indies.  In search of a better life, he journeyed with his family to the United States at the age of seventeen.  

Education

Dyett entered Howard University in Washington, D. C. , in 1913 to take college preparatory courses. His education took a back seat to his stint in the segregated armed forces during World War I, but he later returned to receive both the B. A. degree in 1918 and the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1920.

One of the few blacks during this period to accomplish this feat, Dyett won academic distinction for both degrees.  He continued his graduate studies at Boston University, receiving his Master of Laws degree in 1921.

Career

After receiving his Master of Laws degree in 1921 Thomas Dyett was later admitted to the New York bar. A competent lawyer and a committed veteran, Dyett worked to strengthen community ties. His efforts were reflected in his roles as chairman of the Legal Committee for the American Legion; executive member and judge advocate of Colonel Charles Young Post 398; member of the Board of Appeals No. 3 of Selective Service from 1941 to 1946, becoming chairman from 1943 to 1946; and member of the Executive Committee of the Army and Navy Committee of the YMCA, in charge of USO operations during World War II.  He would spend more than fifty years dedicated to racial justice and equality.  Dyett was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1927 to 1937.  He represented New York as a Democratic delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1938.

He was appointed in 1940 by Governor Herbert H. Lehman to succeed Henrietta Additon on the state correction commission, thus becoming its first black member.  Serving on the commission from 1940 to 1946, he gained a reputation as a public-spirited attorney who recognized social problems and worked actively to implement solutions.  He spent long hours in meeting sessions as a member of the Mayor's Committee on Unity.  In 1952 he became the first black appointee to the Municipal Civil Service Commission.  Mayor Vincent R. Impelliteri chose him to fill the position made vacant by the death of Judge James S. Watson.

However, the laws requiring majority nomination and vote precluded Dyett from assuming Watson's presidency.  As a member of the New York County Lawyers' Association, the largest lawyers group in America, Dyett served on a wide range of committees dealing with such matters as membership,  criminal court, and legal education.  

In 1955, he became the first black member of the board of directors in the organization's forty-seven-year existence.  In 1958, he was also appointed to the Character and Fitness Committee of the Appellate Division, First Department, to screen applicants for admission as lawyers in Manhattan and the Bronx.

Personally humble, he sponsored admission to the Bar for hundreds of lawyers, black and white alike. Also to his credit are the accomplishments of his two young former law partners in Dyett, Alexander and Dinkins.  Fritz W. Alexander 2d became the first black judge on the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, and David N. Dinkins became the first black mayor of New York City.  Concerned about the economic, social, and educational conditions in Harlem, he joined a group of influential black men, organized by Professor Kenneth B. Clark of City College, who met to discuss issues and laws that affected the black community.  In 1949, they founded the Carver Federal Savings and Loan Association, the first black-owned and -managed  banking institution in the State of New York.  Dyett served as the bank's first general counsel.  In 1958, he cofounded the Allied Federal Savings and Loan Association in Jamaica, New York. Dyett was for many years general counsel to the United Mutual Life Insurance Company, the only one organized, managed, and controlled by blacks in New York State.  Recognized as one of the city's leading blacks, he worked closely with Mayor La Guardia to reestablish racial harmony during the Harlem riots of 1943.  

Often honored for his contributions, Dyett died at the age of eighty-five. His death was announced on the front page of the Amsterdam News, the leading black newspaper in New York City.

Achievements

• One of the most respected lawyers in the black community, Thomas Dyett had a wider reputation as well, alternating his largely civil practice with stints in public office. Dyett also served on a nineteen-member citizens' committee specially appointed by leaders of the Democratic, Republican, and Liberal parties to screen potential nominees for seventeen supreme court posts in two counties. It was the first time in New York history that both major political parties had consented to be bound by a citizens' committee on judicial selection.

Personality

He was a model of integrity and balance and clarity; not only in his professional and public life, but personally he was a gentleman.

Connections

During the period after receiving Master in Laws in 1921, Thomas Dyett met and married young Lily B. Ransom of Boston, Massachussets, who died in 1951.  The couple had no children.

Wife:

Lily Ransom

References

• Thomas B. Dyett, Special Guardian, Etc., Appellant, v. Title Guarantee and Trust Company et al. U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings