Earl B. Dickerson Centennial Celebration

About the Dickerson Centennial 

On October 30, 2020 and April 16, 2021, the University of Chicago Law School celebrated an historic milestone for our institution: the 100th anniversary of the graduation of one of our most distinguished alumni, Earl B. Dickerson. The virtual symposia held on those dates featured top experts on Dickerson's life and legacy, and video of those panels can be viewed below. 

Earl 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 won the Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee (1940), a challenge to racially restrictive covenants in Chicago.