Virgil D. Hawkins

Virgil Darnell Hawkins (November 11, 1906 – February 11, 1988) was a black Florida attorney who spent the last several decades of his life fighting for admission to practice law in Florida after having initially been denied admission to the University of Florida School of Law on the basis of his race.

Hawkins was a graduate of Bethune–Cookman College,[1] in Daytona Beach, Florida, and later served as Bethune–Cookman's director of public relations.[2] In 1949, Hawkins sought to attend the University of Florida Law School, and was denied admission because of his race. He filed suit, but the Florida Supreme Court refused to admit him on the premise that a "separate but equal" law school was in the process of being established at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University to accommodate Hawkins and other black law students in Florida.[3][4]

In 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Florida ex Rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control,[5] that Hawkins was "entitled to prompt admission [to the University of Florida Law School] under the rules and regulations applicable to other qualified candidates." However, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins "vowed to resist the order through every lawful means",[1] and the Florida Supreme Court refused to admit Hawkins to the University of Florida because of the potential for "great public mischief" the admission of blacks to white state schools might cause.[6][4] The public mischief referred to in the opinion consisted of threats by white parents to cause their children to drop out of or transfer to schools other than Florida's white state schools if blacks were allowed to attend.[4]

After unsuccessful attempts to obtain additional relief from the United States Supreme Court, Hawkins attended law school in Boston but was denied permission to take the Florida Bar exam because the law school was unaccredited. Finally, in 1976, [the Florida Supreme Court] ordered that Hawkins be admitted to The Florida Bar without having to take the bar exam in an attempt to remedy the injustices of the past.[7][4]

Consequently, it was not until 1977, at the age of sixty-nine, that Hawkins opened his law office in Leesburg, Florida. The Florida Supreme Court later noted that Hawkins "seldom turned away an indigent client in need", but that "his advanced age and lapse of years since attending law school, the loss of a quality law school education, and the strain of practice as a sole practitioner made the successful practice of law difficult".[4] He ultimately faced disciplinary proceedings for matters arising out of his practice. Unable to afford counsel, on one occasion he appeared before the Florida Supreme Court in proper person and pleaded, "When I get to heaven, I want to be a member of The Florida Bar".[4] Finally, "[w]orn and weary from the struggles of the last half of his life, and still unable to retain counsel, Hawkins put down his sword, and attempted to leave the battlefield".[4] Hawkins filed a petition to resign from The Florida Bar which was accepted by the Florida Supreme Court on April 18, 1985. Hawkins died on February 11, 1988.[4]

Following his death, "[n]umerous attorneys throughout the state" joined a petition to the Florida Supreme Court to have Hawkins posthumously reinstated to the Florida Bar, a petition granted by the Court in October 1988.[4] In 1993, comic book artist Dwayne McDuffie gave the Milestone Comics character Static the civilian identity of "Virgil Hawkins", after Hawkins.[8]

References
  1. Bettye Collier-Thomas, V. P. Franklin, My Soul Is a Witness: A Chronology of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1965 (2000), p. 43.
  2. The Crisis (May 1958),Vol. 65, No. 5, p. 292.
  3. State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, 47 So.2d 608 (Fla. 1950).
  4. In re Virgil Darnell Hawkins, 532 So.2d 669, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 627 (Fla. Sup. Ct., Oct. 20, 1988).
  5. Florida ex Rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, 350 U.S. 413 (1956).
  6. State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, 93 So.2d 354 (Fla.), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 839, 78 S.Ct. 20, 2 L.Ed.2d 49 (1957).
  7. In re Board of Bar Examiners, 339 So.2d 637 (Fla. 1976).
  8. Fox, Margalit (February 23, 2011). "Dwayne McDuffie, Comic-Book Writer, Dies at 49". The New York Times.
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