Oliver White Hill Sr. (1907-2007)
Historical highway marker K-91 · Roanoke City
Oliver White Hill Sr., Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, worked to dismantle Jim Crow laws in the United States. Over his nearly seven-decade career as a civil rights attorney, Hill challenged inequities in education, employment, and public facilities. With law partner Spottswood W. Robinson III, Hill argued Davis v. Prince Edward County, one of four cases consolidated into the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board. Hill lived here at 401 Gilmer Avenue NW with Lelia and Bradford Pentecost from 1913-1923. After completing high school, college, and law school in Washington, DC, he returned to Roanoke's Gainsboro community in 1934 to practice law. Hill settled in Richmond in 1939.
Department of Historic Resources, 2008