29 Sep 2005
Attorney W. J. Durham is known as the Texas Father of Civil Rights
DALLAS–The Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and Board Trustees Hollis Brashear and Lew Blackburn will join community members in the library renaming ceremony honoring Attorney W. J. Durham at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts at noon on Friday, Sept. 30, at 2501 Flora St.
W. J. Durham was well known during the 1940s and 1950s in the Dallas legal community as the best African-American courthouse lawyer anywhere. As lead council in Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629-636 (1950), Durham won the right for African-Americans to attend the University of Texas Law School. He also filed the first lawsuit to end desegregation in DISD and teamed with other attorneys to represent black teachers in efforts to receive equal pay.