Black History Month Legends

Cochran, King, Marshall, Motley, Obama, Parks Thomas, Tubman, Williams among Many Who Have Inspired Future Generations of Attorneys

In celebration of Black History Month and part of its year-round commitment to diversity, We commemorate the vital contributions that black lawyers have made to society and their achievements that continue to inspire future generations of attorneys to become equally successful.

This month we recognize the pioneering roles of the following lawyers and distinguished Americans who helped shape society and encourages the legal community to explore in detail their efforts during Black History Month.

• Johnnie L. Cochran – best-known for leading the “Dream Team” of lawyers that defended and subsequently earned the acquittal of OJ Simpson, who was accused of murdering his wife, Nicole, and friend Ronald Goldman, the Los Angeles-based attorney also represented a long list of high-profile clients including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Jim Brown, Snoop Dogg, and Marian Jones.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. – considered the most important advocate for American civil rights, the Baptist minister is noted for his strong belief in non-violent protests, which set the tone for the movement during the 1950s and 1960s. His influence was best captured at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration in the history of the nation’s capital and the most significant display of the movement’s strength. The last leader to appear before the crowd, King called for voting rights, equal employment opportunities for blacks and an end to segregation in what was the most defining moment in the movement.
• Thurgood Marshall – the first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Marshall is known for his victory in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, which overturned the “separate but equal” statute in public education established in Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Constance Motley – the first African-American woman to hold a federal judiciary position, Motley was also the first to represent a case before the U.S. Supreme Court when she argued for James Meredith to be the first black student allowed to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962.
• Barack Obama – the first African-American elected president of the United States, Obama practiced constitution law in Chicago before beginning his political career in the Illinois State Senate. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Obama became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. Obama served two terms as U.S. president, beginning with his election to office in 2008.
• Rosa Parks – Considered the “mother of the civil rights movement,” the then 42-year-old seamstress refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., which led to her arrest for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances. A year later, in Browder v. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower decision declaring the segregated seating policy of the bus company to be unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
• Maya Angelou – Born Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou, she was an American author, screenwriter, actress, poet, and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman.
• Muhammad Ali – Born Cassius Clay was a boxer, philanthropist and social activist who is universally known as one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. In 1960, Ali became an Olympic gold medalist and the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964. Following his suspension for refusing military service, Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title two more times during the 1970s, winning famed bouts against Joe Frazier and George Foreman along the way. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984, Ali devoted much of his time to philanthropy, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
• Jackie Robinson – Throughout his decade-long career, Robinson distinguished himself as one of the game’s most talented and exciting players, recording an impressive .311 career batting average. He became the first African American athlete to play Major League Baseball in the 20th century. In 1947, Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was also a vocal civil rights activist.
• Clarence Thomas – the former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and current U.S. Supreme Court Judge, Thomas is known as one of the most conservative-leaning members, frequently voting in favor of First Amendment, Second Amendment, and Fourth Amendment issues.
• Harriet Tubman – the most celebrated “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, the former slave guided some 300 other slaves to freedom from southern plantations to “safe houses” in the North. She later served as a scout and spy for Union forces during the Civil War.
• George Washington Williams – the first African-American elected to the Ohio State Legislature, the former soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War wrote ““An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo,” a document that served to correct the civil injustices perpetrated by King Leopold II of Belgium on the Congo Free State.

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