Brief by G. Fahs
Virgil D. Hawkins was born 28 Nov 1911 in Okahumpka, Lake County and
died 11 Feb 1988 in Monroe Regional Medical Center, Ocala,
Florida. He was buried Oakridge Cemetery, Okahumpka,
Florida. He was the son of Virgil W. and Josephine (Brown)
Hawkins. Virgil married Ida M. Frazier, 11 May 1952 in Eustis.
Obit
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - February 15, 1988
Deceased Name: VIRGIL HAWKINS , LAWYER, CRUSADER FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
LEESBURG -- Black activist Virgil Hawkins, who waged a 28-year civil
rights battle to practice law in Florida and helped break the color
barrier at the University of Florida Law School, died after a lengthy
illness. He was 81.
Mr. Hawkins had been in poor health for
several months. He moved to Ocala to live with relatives when his wife,
Ida, was unable to care for him at their Leesburg home.
He died on Thursday at Munroe Regional
Medical Center in Ocala after suffering acute kidney failure, his wife
said on Saturday.
Funeral services are scheduled for 11
a.m. on Feb. 20 at St. Stephens AME Church in Leesburg.
He was hospitalized in June after
suffering a stroke that left him unable to speak.
Mr. Hawkins, who was born in Okahumpka,
near Leesburg, taught school and was a principal in Lake County schools
in the 1940s after graduating from Bethune- Cookman College in Daytona
Beach.
In 1949, at the age of 41, he applied
for admission to the all-white law school at the University of Florida
in Gainesville and was turned away because he was black.
That incident began a 28-year civil
rights odyssey that ended when he was allowed to practice law in 1977.
Although Mr. Hawkins never attended the University of Florida Law
School, his battle opened the door for other blacks.
Mr. Hawkins challenged the state's
segregated school system and won a court order prohibiting graduate
schools from discriminating because of race when enrolling students.
The order forced Florida to allow blacks into law schools at the
University of Florida and Florida State University.
In March 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that he should be admitted to the law school in Gainesville.
The Florida Supreme Court invoked
states' rights to deny Mr. Hawkins immediate admission in a 5-2 ruling.
In June 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to throw out the state
court's decision. The Board of Control, similar to the current Board of
Regents, then adopted rigid entrance requirements that made it
impossible for Mr. Hawkins to enroll even if he won court approval.
Nineteen years later, the Florida Bar
told the state Supreme Court that it should give special consideration
to Mr. Hawkins because of his ill treatment while trying to enter law
school in 1949.
The Bar said Mr. Hawkins should be
allowed to take the state bar examination even though he graduated from
an unaccredited Massachusetts law school about 20 years earlier. If he
failed, the Bar said Mr. Hawkins should be given special assistance.
In November 1976, the Florida Supreme
Court ruled 7-0 that Mr. Hawkins should be allowed to practice law in
Florida and waived a requirement he first take the state bar
examination.
Hawkins and Durden were friends and neighbors in a neighborhood along
County Road 468.
Fact Facts (undated newspaper article, probably Orlando Sentinel).
James Durden was an assistant public defender in Lake County for nine
years until retiring in December 1990. He was
honored in June
1989 by the U.S. Supreme Court for his work as a defense lawyer for the
needy and poor. He passed The Florida Bar exam in 1958 after graduating
from Howard University in Washington, DC, then opened a private
practice in Leesburg. Durden died at age 62 in 1990 after battling
cancer for three years.
Brief by G. Fahs
James Warren Durden was born 28 Feb 1927 in Savannah, Georgia, died 21
Jan 1990 in Leesburg, and was buried Evergreen Cemetery, Lake
County. He was the son of James S. and Viola (Rushing)
Durden, and the sibling of Thelma L., Anna M., and Janey D.
He was married to Ozie White.
James served in the 5th Armored Division during the Korean War,
enlisting at Panama City, Bay County, Florida in 1950.
Obit
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - January 23, 1990
Deceased Name: JAMES DURDEN , ATTORNEY 1ST BLACK TO PRACTICE LAW IN
LAKE COUNTY
James Durden, Lake County's pioneer
black attorney who was honored by the U.S. Supreme Court for his
''defense of the needy and the unfortunate,'' has died in Leesburg at
the age of 62.
Mr. Durden worked as an assistant public
defender until mid-December, despite the cancer he had fought for the
past three years. He died on Sunday at his home.
In June, he was invited to Washington to
meet with Supreme Court justices William Brennan, Anthony Kennedy and
Sandra Day O'Connor. They told him that his refusal to give up his
fight to represent the poor in the face of racial bigotry and hatred
was an example for the nation.
''The principal interest of most lawyers
is the almighty buck,'' Brennan told Mr. Durden. ''Then there are those
who believe their first responsibility is the defense of the needy and
the unfortunate.''
Born in Savannah, Ga., Mr. Durden fought
in World War II before working his way through Bethune-Cookman College
in Daytona Beach to become a teacher. After serving in the Korean War,
he returned to Leesburg to teach.
He passed the Florida Bar exam in 1958
after graduating from Howard University in Washington. He opened a
private practice in Leesburg.
The work was not easy in the segregated
South. Mr. Durden continued teaching at night because he did not earn
enough money from his law practice to survive.
For decades, he was Lake County's only
black attorney. He said he felt plenty of racial bias, but refused to
discuss it, saying he preferred to dwell on the positive things in his
life. .....GFahs