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Chicago, Illinois 60605
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contact@nlgchicago.org
www.nlgchicago.org
"...to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members -- lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers, and
legal workers united in chapters and committees -- the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
Our aims:
. to eliminate racism;
. to safeguard and strengthen the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends;
. to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them;
. to use the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.
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Earl B. Dickerson
June 22, 1891 - September 1, 1986
1891 -- Born, Canton, Mississippi
Childhood -- Saw his brother shot & crippled by the white police chief, whom he had accidentally touched.
1914 -- B.A., University of Illinois
1920 -- J.D.: First African American graduate of the University of Chicago law school
June 1930 -- Married Katherine (Kathryn) Kennedy, who was famously photographed by Gordon Parks
1939-1947 -- Served his first term as president of the Chicago Urban League
1940 -- Argued and won the landmark restrictive covenant case Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940). The named plaintiff, Carl Hansberry, was the father of Lorraine Hansberry, later the author of A Raisin in the Sun. Chicago attorney C. Francis Stanford represented Hansberry. Dickerson represented plaintiffs Liberty Life Insurance Co. and its president -- a South-Side, African-American business that wrote Hansberry's mortgage.
Early '40s -- Alderman, Second Ward, City of Chicago
1941-1980 -- National board member, NAACP
December, 1949 - Led the effort to build an intentional, racially-integrated neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Fifty civic organizations signed the historic "Hyde Park - Kenwood Community Conference" policy statement, urging the University of Chicago, Michael Reese Hospital, and other vital institutions to remain in the neighborhood, rather than join white flight.
February 1950 -- Addressed second annual convention of the Illinois Progressive Party; shared the podium with Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Henry
A. Wallace.
1951-1954 -- First African American president of the National Lawyers Guild
1951-1955 -- Served his second term as president of the Chicago Urban League
January 1956 -- Joins coalition of Chicago African Ame! rican leaders supporting the Montgomery Bus Boycott
In a letter to King, Dickerson writes: "Economic pressure is a w! eapon which we must use as a means of obtaining complete equality .... I trust that you will hold steadfast."
Attorney for Paul Robeson
Attorney for W.E.B. DuBois
Links:
Earl B. Dickerson Chapter of the Black Law Students Assn., U of C:
http://blsa.uchicago.edu/files/Action_Plan_Letter.pdf
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