Oliver White Hill Sr. (1907-2007)
Historical highway marker SA-8 · Richmond City
Oliver White Hill Sr., civil rights attorney, helped dismantle legally mandated racial segregation in the South. He graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1933 and returned to Richmond, his native city, in 1939. Working for the Virginia NAACP, he challenged inequities in education, public facilities, voting rights, and the criminal justice system. One of his cases was consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954). In 1948, Hill became the first African American elected to the Richmond City Council in the 20th century. The Finance Building in Capitol Square was renamed for him in 2005.
Department of Historic Resources, 2008