The Dickerson Centennial celebrates an historic milestone for our institution: the 100th anniversary of the graduation of one of our most distinguished alumni, Earl B. Dickerson.
Dickerson, born in Mississippi in 1891, graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1920, the first African American to earn a juris doctor from our institution. His distinguished career included serving as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army in WWI, an alderman of Chicago, president of the Supreme Life Insurance Company, a member of the national board of the NAACP, and president of the National Lawyers Guild. He also orchestrated and argued the landmark Supreme Court case, Hansberry v. Lee (1940), which brought an end to the use of a racially restrictive covenant in Chicago.
