Charles Hamilton Houston Transforms Howard Law into Civil Rights Training Ground

Charles Hamilton Houston became vice dean of Howard University Law School in 1929 and transformed it into an accredited law school focused explicitly on civil rights litigation. Houston said a lawyer was 'either a social engineer or a parasite on society.' He recruited and trained students including Thurgood Marshall, William Hastie, and Robert Carter — who would litigate most of the major civil rights cases of the following three decades. Houston himself argued the landmark Murray v. Pearson case (1935) successfully integrating the University of Maryland Law School. His strategic vision organized a law school's resources as an instrument of social justice.