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Loudoun Co. courthouse named for civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston
Loudoun Co. courthouse named for civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston
Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com
September 10, 2024, 1:19 PM
A historic courthouse, in Leesburg, Virginia, now bears the name of groundbreaking civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston. (Courtesy Loudoun County Government)
Loudoun County’s historic courthouse, in Leesburg, Virginia, now bears the name of groundbreaking civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston, whose arguments within its walls led to U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and more equitable education for area families.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, and eventually becoming dean of Howard University Law School, Houston became the first general counsel of the NAACP.
In 1933, inside the Loudoun County courthouse at the intersection of King and Market streets, Houston led an all-Black legal team in the defense of George Crawford, a Black man charged with murdering two white women in Middleburg.
The defense spared Crawford from a death sentence, and laid the groundwork for a Supreme Court ruling on the inherent bias in all-white juries. … Houston’s advocacy also challenged the notion of “separate but equal” schools and helped to end segregation in Virginia.
{snip}
Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
naugenstein@wtop.com
@AugensteinWTOP
Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com
September 10, 2024, 1:19 PM
A historic courthouse, in Leesburg, Virginia, now bears the name of groundbreaking civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston. (Courtesy Loudoun County Government)
Loudoun County’s historic courthouse, in Leesburg, Virginia, now bears the name of groundbreaking civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston, whose arguments within its walls led to U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and more equitable education for area families.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, and eventually becoming dean of Howard University Law School, Houston became the first general counsel of the NAACP.
In 1933, inside the Loudoun County courthouse at the intersection of King and Market streets, Houston led an all-Black legal team in the defense of George Crawford, a Black man charged with murdering two white women in Middleburg.
The defense spared Crawford from a death sentence, and laid the groundwork for a Supreme Court ruling on the inherent bias in all-white juries. … Houston’s advocacy also challenged the notion of “separate but equal” schools and helped to end segregation in Virginia.
{snip}
Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
naugenstein@wtop.com
@AugensteinWTOP