Biography of mr donald l hollowell

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The war was an eye-opener, as Hollowell experienced the cruel discrimination of racist segregationist policies. Hollowell’s wife went on to become a professor at Morris Brown College.

“Mr. In 1966 he became the first African American regional director of a major federal agency when U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to oversee the southeastern regional office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Early Life

Donald Lee Hollowell was born on December 19, 1917, in Wichita, Kansas, to Ocenia Bernice and Harrison Hannibal Hollowell.

Although in Kansas and therefore not subject to the racist Jim Crow laws of the South, he faced blatant racism and discrimination while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Hollowell recounted that "army officials relegated him to eating in the kitchen, sleeping in quarters adjacent to prisoners, and patronizing Jim Crow canteens." Hollowell's experiences with racial segregation and discrimination and his involvement with the Southern Negro Youth Congress after the war inspired him to pursue the study of law to help in the fight for social justice.^[7] In 1947, Hollowell graduated magna cum laude from Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and he earned his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1951.

He was 87 years old.

To honor him, the City of Atlanta renamed Bankhead Highway (U.S. In another case, Hollowell and members of his firm prevented the execution of a 15-year-old black youth from Monticello, Georgia five days before it was scheduled to take place. Over the course of his career, he mentored a number of younger attorneys and civil rights activists, including Ward, Jordan, Marvin Arrington, and Lonnie King.

He is the subject of a 2010 documentary film, Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Biography

Early years

Donald Hollowell was born in Wichita, Kansas, and spent much of his childhood in Eureka, Kansas. However, with the help of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attorney Constance Baker Motley, Vernon Jordan, and Horace Ward, who joined Hollowell’s practice after receiving a law degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, Hollowell skillfully exposed contradictions in the state’s defense.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Hollowell as regional director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a government agency that monitors workplace discrimination. As a result, Judge William Bootle issued a ruling on January 6, 1961, ordering UGA to admit the two students.

In  1960 Hollowell provided counsel to college students waging sit-ins at Atlanta’s lunch counters, and he secured the release of Martin Luther King Jr.

from the Reidsville prison, where he was held on charges stemming from his participation in the student demonstrations. In 1968, he received the Fraternity's highest honor, the Laurel Wreath Award, for his work in civil rights. The book also tells the love story of Donald and Louise Hollowell, who celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in 2004.^[7]

Attorney and Mrs.

Hollowell had no children, but were the godparents to Dr. Albert J. H. Sloan, II, past President of Miles College (HBCU) outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Hollowell remained with the EEOC for nearly 20 years. Civil Rights”

In Atlanta Hollowell quickly distinguished himself as a gifted attorney and advocate for social justice. As a result, he enjoyed a reputation throughout Georgia for courage in the courtroom and was often referred to as “Mr.

Death and legacy

Hollowell died on December 27, 2004, eight days after his 87th birthday, of heart failure.

Hollowell represented King again two years later, when he and other activists were arrested as a result of their participation in the Albany Movement.

In 1966 President Johnson appointed Hollowell as director of the southeastern regional Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, based in Atlanta, a position he held for the next nineteen years.

In that case a federal district court judge ruled the school’s admission policies to be unconstitutional, paving the way for a more contentious legal showdown.

In 1959 Hollowell accepted yet another school desegregation case, this one on behalf of two undergraduate applicants denied admission to UGA, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter.