On the recordApril 20, 2010
I support House Resolution 1271, and this resolution honors the life and achievements of Dr. Benjamin Lawson Hooks for his commitment to justice and his work with the NAACP to eliminate barriers to civil rights and his leadership in promoting equal opportunity for everybody. He was born in Memphis in 1925. His family inspired him to study diligently in school and go to college, from which he graduated in 1944. After service in the United States Army, he went to law school at DePaul University. He graduated in 1948 and went back home to Memphis, Tennessee. From 1949 to 1965 he was one of a handful of African Americans practicing law in Memphis. In his law practice, Dr. Hooks was determined to combat segregation. Days before the United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Dr. Hooks joined Thurgood Marshall and other attorneys at a roundtable to consider litigation strategies to challenge Jim Crow laws. Dr. Hooks was a pioneer in restaurant sit-ins and other boycotts sponsored by the NAACP.
