Oliver Hill

Oliver White Hill, Sr. (May 1, 1907 – August 5, 2007) was an American civil rights supporter from Richmond, Virginia. His work against discrimination helped end the common saying of "separate but equal". He also helped win landmark legal decisions involving equality in pay for Black teachers, access to school buses, voting rights, jury selection, and employment protection. He retired in 1998 after practicing law for almost 60 years. Along with his other awards, he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Bill Clinton in 1999. During the 1940s and 1950s, the safety of Hill's life and family were threatened by his work. Due to telephoned threats, Hill's young son was not allowed to answer the telephone, and at one point a cross was burned on the Hills' lawn. However, Hill continued to wage legal battles. After Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, Virginia under the Byrd Organization followed a policy known as massive resistance to avoid desegregation, enacting a legislative package known as the Stanley plan which included tuition grant support of segregation academies set up to avoid the extant public schools. Hill died at the age of 100 in 2007 in Richmond, Virginia.