Saving the Soul of Georgia: Donald L. Hollowell and the Struggle for Civil Rights

Saving the Soul of Georgia

SAVING THE SOUL OF GEORGIA

DONALD L. HOLLOWELL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

Maurice C. Daniels

Foreword by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.

A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication

This publication is made possible in part through a grant from the Hodge Foundation in memory of its founder, Sarah Mills Hodge, who devoted her life to the relief and education of African Americans in Savannah, Georgia.

© 2013 by the University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

All rights reserved

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daniels, Maurice Charles, 1952–

Saving the soul of Georgia : Donald L. Hollowell and the struggle for civil rights / Maurice C. Daniels ; [foreword by] Vernon E. Jordan.

    pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-4596-3 (hardback)

ISBN-10: 0-8203-4596-2 (hardcover)

1. Hollowell, Donald L., 1917-2004.

2. Lawyers—Georgia—Biography.

3. African American lawyers—Georgia—Biography.

4. African Americans—Civil rights—Georgia—History—20th century.

5. African Americans—Segregation—Georgia—History—20th century.

6. Civil rights—United States.

I. Title.

KF373.H597D36 2013

340.092—dc23

[B]            2013017346

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8203-4629-8

To Carrin, Lauren, Nicole, Maya,

and to the memory of my brother, LaFronzo Daniels

Contents

Illustrations follow page 90.

Foreword

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.

From the time of Donald L. Hollowell’s birth in 1917 to his death in 2004, black Americans faced what historian W. E. B. Du Bois called the problem of the twentieth century—the problem of the color line. During Hollowell’s lifetime black soldiers fought in two world wars for a country that subjected blacks to second-class citizenship; state-sanctioned educational policies barred blacks from equal opportunities in public schools and colleges; an oppressive criminal justice system routinely denied blacks due process of law and the right to serve on juries; the health-care system prohibited blacks from access or relegated them to inferior treatment; and blacks faced systemic racial discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, public accommodations, transportation, and voter registration. Yet Hollowell also saw a massive social movement transform the racial landscape of America, along with the signing of executive orders and passage of numerous laws to ensure civil rights. His life was a testament to the struggles of black Americans in the twentieth century, struggles in which he figured prominently. Hollowell’s long and illustrious career as an attorney and freedom fighter in the American South spanned the entire second half of the twentieth century.

I learned of Donald Hollowell’s reputation as a civil rights lawyer when I was a young man growing up in Atlanta in the 1950s. Back then Hollowell was affectionately known as Mr. Civil Rights, a man who combined his interest in law with his passion for social justice. After moving to Atlanta in 1952, he became actively involved in community organizations such as the NAACP, and his activism in the community complemented his courtroom efforts to win civil rights for blacks.

As a Howard University law student who dreamt of returning home to practice civil rights law, I set my sights on securing a job in my hometown with one of the few Georgia lawyers who acted as cooperating attorneys for the NAACP, serving as local counsel when the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) pursued cases in the area. Kenneth Days, my bandmaster at David T. Howard High School and a friend and fraternity brother of Hollowell, encouraged Hollowell to meet with me when I came home for Christmas break in 1959. I saw firsthand in that meeting how committed he was to social justice and civil rights.

I started working for Hollowell for thirty-five dollars a week in May 1960, a few days after I graduated from law school. He was taking on cases in Atlanta while at the same time crisscrossing Georgia to defend blacks in remote locales and to assist the LDF in obtaining equal rights for blacks in public schools, public accommodations, voting, and many other areas. Amazingly, he had been a sole practitioner without a law clerk for eight years. Hollowell desperately needed help, so when I joined his law office I became his law clerk, researcher, legal interlocutor, and chauffeur. Being in close contact with the man for many hours, I learned what I could not have learned in law school. I learned not only the craft of being a lawyer but also how to successfully navigate a judicial system that had little regard for black attorneys and accorded even less respect and fairness to black clients.

Many days and nights I traveled with Hollowell to the backwoods outposts and urban centers of Georgia, defending the rights of numerous black men unjustly charged with crimes under the Jim Crow system. One case in particular that Maurice C. Daniels covers in detail in chapter 8 of this biography is that of Nathaniel Johnson, a black man sentenced to die for allegedly raping a white woman. Hollowell rushed to help after Augusta NAACP president Reverend C. S. Hamilton called to inform him that Johnson was incarcerated in the Tattnall County State Prison awaiting execution.

In a hearing the day before the scheduled execution, I stood with Hollowell in the U.S. courthouse of the Southern District of Georgia before avowed segregationist Judge Frank Scarlett, seeking a stay of execution for Johnson. Hollowell’s most reasoned arguments failed to move Judge Scarlett. In the ensuing twenty-four hours I witnessed Hollowell’s remarkable commitment to his client and his relentless determination to see that justice was served. I also saw his extraordinary compassion for his client as he meticulously and exhaustively pursued every possible legal avenue trying to save Johnson’s life.

I learned vital lessons from Hollowell’s humanity and compassion in this case, lessons that guided me in my legal practice and continue to serve as a model for my actions today. Equally instructive were Hollowell’s lessons about preparation, tenacity, and perseverance as a legal advocate. And from this case, I acquired an intimate understanding of Hollowell the man, the humanitarian, the legal scholar and theorist, the tactician, and the pragmatist.

From this case on, I continued to watch carefully and to learn many valuable lessons that shaped the lawyer and the man I am today. I assisted Hollowell with dozens of cases in Atlanta and throughout Georgia—cases involving the defense of black people often charged with capital crimes and precedent-setting cases that challenged the Jim Crow system in the context of the Fourteenth Amendment. The most celebrated case asserting equal justice under the law on which I assisted Hollowell was Holmes v. Danner, in which Hollowell and his clients fought to desegregate the University of Georgia (UGA).

Daniels provides a rich and well-documented account of that case in chapter 4. Hollowell, as an activist lawyer, played a key role in selecting Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, two brilliant young students from Atlanta, to seek admission to UGA in 1959. The state of Georgia at that time used every available ploy to sustain segregation in its institutions, and UGA was no exception. Holmes and Hunter were summarily rejected by university officials, and Hollowell ultimately filed a lawsuit to gain their admission.

Hollowell served as chief counsel, working with the LDF. Under the tutelage of Hollowell and LDF counsel Constance Baker Motley, cocounsel Horace T. Ward, Atlanta University assistant registrar Gerald Taylor, and I carefully and thoroughly searched UGA admissions records for differences between the treatment of Holmes and Hunter and that of white students who had applied after them. I was lucky enough to find incontrovertible evidence that Holmes and Hunter were rejected due to their race.

Hollowell marshaled the legal team and meticulously crafted and executed the case. His and Motley’s orchestration of the trial preparation and their gifted lawyering in the courtroom were something to behold, completely mesmerizing at times. I remember vividly Hollowell’s booming baritone voice and precise diction, his sharp intellect, his commanding knowledge of the law and the Constitution, his imposing stature, and his debonair style, all of which epitomized the ideal of the race man. Hollowell’s legal acumen was matched by his outreach to his young clients. Transcending his role as an activist lawyer, he embraced Charlayne and Hamilton as if they were his own children. He not only provided tremendous moral support for them throughout the protracted legal process but also befriended them and mentored them over many years. Hollowell was very popular among his clients, especially the many student activists who regarded him as the movement’s lawyer.

From the 1960 Holmes case until Hollowell’s death in 2004, he was my mentor and friend and often provided wise counsel to me personally and professionally. Simply put, he was my man. Whatever I have accomplished, I owe in large measure to Hollowell’s giving me my first opportunity to work in the law, providing a brilliant model for me to emulate, and guiding me over the years. At the same time, it should be underscored that Hollowell tutored and trained dozens of lawyers. He inspired many of them to commit themselves to the cause of social justice and, following his brave example, even to risk their personal safety for this worthy cause.

The mourners at Mr. Hollowell’s funeral, held in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College, were in many ways a Who’s Who of Atlanta and the civil rights movement. Present were U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, federal judge Horace T. Ward, Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, civil rights attorney Howard Moore, and many unsung soldiers who fought in the battle for civil rights in Georgia. Notably, many of Hollowell’s former clients attended the service—some, such as Preston Cobb, literally owed their lives to him. In chapter 7, Daniels provides an insightful and crisp account of Hollowell’s rescue of the fifteen-year-old Cobb from death row in Reidsville’s maximum-security prison.

The massive show of respect for Hollowell and the immense gratitude for his work were reminders of the many lives he had influenced and the impact of his legal work and activism on the fabric of American democracy. Hollowell was no less significant than other revered legal thinkers and freedom fighters of the twentieth century. For me, he was and remains as significant as Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer, and many other well-known activists in the black freedom struggle.

Saving the Soul of Georgia is a magnificent account of Hollowell’s remarkable civil rights work and appropriately records his place in history. Moreover, in telling Hollowell’s story this distinguished study also illuminates the work of many other unsung lawyers and activists, such as the brilliant and courageous C. B. King, who made invaluable contributions to the civil rights movement. The book offers a salient account of the broad and complex struggle for racial equality in Georgia, including some of the legal work and direct action that advanced civil rights in Atlanta, Albany, Savannah, Augusta, Macon, and other Georgia cities. Notably, Saving the Soul of Georgia provides a rich and detailed account of Hollowell’s activist role and legal work in the Albany Movement and the Atlanta student sit-ins.

Alongside his work as a great civil rights lawyer, I knew Hollowell to be a devoted husband to the love of his life, Louise Thornton Hollowell. They were married more than six decades, and Louise was a source of great strength and support for Hollowell. He was also deeply religious and, as he often said, he felt he was responding to a sacred call to fight the good fight for freedom and justice. He was a great servant-leader in the CME Church and an influential member of his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, as well as a number of community activist organizations.

Several years ago, Maurice C. Daniels, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, approached me about chairing a committee to endow the Donald L. Hollowell Distinguished Professorship for Social Justice and Civil Rights Studies. Needless to say, it was a distinct honor, and I was delighted that my mentor—America’s lawyer—would have a professorship established in his name. I am grateful to Dean Daniels for having the vision to create this professorship to carry on Donald Hollowell’s legacy and to establish an interdisciplinary center at Georgia’s flagship institution to continue advancing the struggle for social justice and human and civil rights. My special thanks to former UGA president Michael Adams, who supported the establishment of the professorship from its inception, and to the many friends, donors, and supporters who helped bring the endowment to fruition.

For several decades, I have believed that a comprehensive treatise on Donald Hollowell was needed to highlight his legal and political acumen and illuminate the significance of his work in the broader black freedom struggle. The work I envisioned now appears with Maurice C. Daniels’s Saving the Soul of Georgia: Donald L. Hollowell and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Through this book, the great work and remarkable life of Donald L. Hollowell will live on for posterity.

Acknowledgments

While the impetus for this book stems from the importance of chronicling the phenomenal work of Georgia’s foremost unsung civil rights activist and lawyer, the work was also inspired by the influence of unsung grassroots activists on my own upbringing. I was especially inspired by my parents, Eddie Daniels Sr. and Maggie C. Daniels, who grew up on small farms in rural Georgia. My paternal and maternal grandparents had little formal education and struggled to make ends meet. Nevertheless, they valued education and made it possible for my parents to attend Fort Valley State College (FVSC), Georgia’s underfunded separate but equal land grant college for black students.

Though FVSC had nowhere near the resources available at the land grant university for white students, the University of Georgia, my parents and other FVSC students came under the influence of eminent educators and race leaders such as FVSC presidents Horace Mann Bond and Cornelius V. Troupe, who shaped the college into an oasis in south rural Georgia for blacks seeking to improve their lot.

My father, a school principal, and my mother, an elementary school teacher, reared my siblings and me in Rochelle, Georgia, a thoroughly segregated community. As in most rural southern towns in the 1950s and 1960s, blacks did not sit in at segregated establishments or march on picket lines, and there were few opportunities to join the NAACP, the SCLC, or SNCC. Nonetheless, despite the rigid racial caste system that relegated blacks to second-class citizenship, in their own quiet but steadfast way my parents, like other black parents across the South, instructed their progeny to have faith in God and guided us to develop self-confidence and embrace a sense of racial pride. Their resolve to educate their children and prepare them to overcome racial inequality was itself an influential form of activism that advanced the cause of social justice.

My parents carefully tutored us on how to survive and surmount Jim Crow obstructions. At the same time, they relentlessly urged us to get a good education, which they insisted would not only help us earn a good living but would also increase our capacity to overcome racial injustice. To this day the names of many community activists across the South who helped advance the black freedom struggle remain unknown and their stories remain untold. Despite their anonymity, however, they are indeed heroes who helped shape a world that makes the promises of democracy more of a reality for all Americans.

Many individuals helped me in researching and writing this book. I was privileged to be guided by Donald L. Hollowell, who provided valuable insights into his civil rights work and activism. In addition to the firsthand information secured from interviews with him, he introduced or directed me to many of his contemporaries, who also provided rich accounts of his civil rights lawyering. Equally invaluable were my interviews with his wife, Louise T. Hollowell, to whom he was married for sixty-two years. My thanks to her for allowing me to come into her home on several occasions to sift through Hollowell’s personal papers, which now have been archived at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta.

Among the rich sources for this study to whom Hollowell directed me is his former law clerk, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who provided keen insights on Hollowell. Jordan has been a great mentor and friend throughout this research process. Hollowell also guided me to his law partners, Horace T. Ward and Howard Moore Jr., who provided vital insights for the study, critiqued drafts of the manuscript, and went far beyond the call of duty to provide personal accounts of their work with Hollowell.

My deepest appreciation goes to all the individuals I interviewed for this book who generously shared their experiences with me. Their candor and insights were vital to telling this story. I am particularly grateful to Superior Court of Fulton County judge Marvin Arrington, Julian Bond, Robert Brisbane, federal judge William A. Bootle, Mary Frances Early, Jesse Hill, Dr. Hamilton Earl Holmes, Isabella Holmes, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Carol King, Chevene B. King Jr., Lonnie King, Preston King, Congressman John Lewis, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, federal judge Constance Baker Motley, Georgia Court of Appeals judges Herbert Phipps and John Ruffin, Reverend Charles Sherrod, Frank Smith Jr., former Georgia governors Herman Talmadge and Ernest Vandiver, and Ambassador Andrew Young. One of the most memorable interviews was with Preston Cobb, the fifteen-year-old charged with murder in 1961, whose dramatic release from death row was secured by Hollowell only five days before his scheduled execution.

The encouragement, meticulous feedback, and perceptive editing of my friend and colleague Diane Miller enriched this work significantly. Diane’s sage advice and acumen were especially helpful in keeping me on task to bring this project to completion. I am especially indebted to Charles Duncan and Norma Duncan for taking me tenderly but firmly under their wings and providing inspiration, assistance, and important editorial recommendations for improving this book. Charles Duncan’s editorial work on the script for the documentary Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice also helped shape my thinking with regard to developing this book.

It is difficult to express in words the value of my friend and mentor, Derrick P. Alridge, in writing this book. Derrick and I discussed the conceptualization of this work in its early stages during his tenure as a professor at the University of Georgia. After accepting a position at the University of Virginia, Derrick continued to encourage and challenge me to do the research to complete this study despite the obstacles my administrative position often posed. His in-depth knowledge of civil rights history guided me to important archival sources and helped me to address salient issues.

I also thank my colleagues at the annual conferences of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History who provided intellectual affirmation and inspiration, including Timuel D. Black, Aaron D. Gresson, Daryl M. Scott, James B. Stewart, Larry L. Rowley, Dwight D. Watson, Maurice J. Hobson, Cameron Van Patterson, and Cornelius Bynum. I am grateful as well to my University of Georgia colleagues who provided encouragement, including Louis A. Castenell Jr., Cheryl D. Dozier, Carl Glickman, Jerome E. Morris, Letha A. See, June Gary Hopps, Obie Clayton Jr., Geraldine Jackson-White, Ray H. MacNair, Ron Baxter Miller, Harold E. Briggs, and Katheryn B. Davis. Equally inspirational and intellectually stimulating were discussions with colleagues at other universities, including Lawrence E. Gary, Andrew Billingsley, Vicki L. Crawford, Iris Carlton-Laney, Dorcas D. Bowles, Ghangis D. Carter, and Asa G. Hilliard III.

My deepest thanks also to Lonnie King and Preston King, who read chapters and provided key firsthand information. Their advice and critiques greatly enhanced this book. I have benefitted enormously from the essential support and inspiration of Georgia Supreme Court justice Robert Benham and federal judge Clarence Cooper. I am also grateful for the unwavering support of William R. Jenkins and Bryndis W. Roberts.

Many of the interviews were video recorded for the Donald L. Hollowell documentary, produced by the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies at the University of Georgia. Janice Reaves played a key role in helping to produce the documentary and coordinating the interviews. I am grateful for her contributions and the instrumental roles of Valerie D. White and Carrin E. Daniels in the film production. I am especially thankful to Stephen Bridges and Bobby Mitchell for their expert television production services and editing and to Terry Singleton for her script development and writing for the documentary, which provided a valued source for this book. Charlayne Hunter-Gault narrated the documentary and provided keen insights on Hollowell during an interview. My deepest thanks for her support.

I am grateful to archivists and librarians Sharon E. Robinson, Kerrie Cotten-Williams, Anita Martin, Okezie Amalaha, and Ayannah Zafir of the Auburn Avenue Research Library; Charles Freeney of the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library; and Jill Severn and Craig Breaden of the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Library, who provided vital assistance in this endeavor. I also thank the librarians and staff who helped me obtain valuable information for this study at various archival centers, including the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the Atlanta History Center, Columbus State University’s Simon Schwob Memorial Library, Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library, the Federal Bureau of Investigation files, the Georgia Department of Archives and History, Georgia State University’s Special Collections, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the National Archives-Southeast Region, the Library of Congress, New York University’s Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, the University of Georgia’s Peabody Collection, and the University of Georgia Libraries.

This research would not have been possible without the help of many research assistants and staff members. I would like to particularly acknowledge Laurie Reyman and Michelle Estile for their careful and thorough research, initiative, and creativity. They were invaluable in helping uncover obscure documents essential to this study. Thanks also for the able assistance of Cassandra Tolbert, Jeanell Muckle, Deborah Franco, Linda Drummond, Harold Waters, and Mulu Yilma.

I am especially appreciative of the independent readers and editor Derek Krissoff at UGA Press for their supportive feedback and recommendations. Their unstinting editorial suggestions helped me considerably in broadening the scope of this work and capturing more vividly Hollowell’s activism and lawyering within the context of the larger civil rights movement. Many thanks also to UGA Press editor-in-chief Mick Gusinde-Duffy and assistant editor Beth Snead for their editorial advice and guidance and to project editor John Joerschke and copyeditor Barbara Wojhoski for their expert and helpful assistance. Their contributions to this book have been immeasurable.

Thanks also to my pastor, Rev. Dr. Winfred Martin Hope, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, West church family for their prayers and support. My siblings, Eddie Jr., Patricia, and Andrenetta and their families, were also a source of great inspiration and uplift. This book could not have been completed without the support of my wife, Renee, and daughters, Carrin, Lauren, Nicole, and Maya. I especially thank them for their generous critiques and editorial assistance, which helped improve this work, but most of all for their prayers, patience, and unwavering support, which helped strengthen me to endure in this project.

Saving the Soul of Georgia

Introduction

I first met Donald Hollowell in 1990 on the campus of the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, during an annual lecture honoring Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (now Charlayne Hunter-Gault), whom Hollowell represented in the historic Holmes v. Danner case, which resulted in UGA’S desegregation.¹ The university president’s office asked me, as president of the UGA Black Faculty and Staff Organization (BFSO), to escort Hollowell and his wife, Louise T. Hollowell—a bold civil rights advocate in her own right—during their campus visit. I was to meet the Hollowells at a reception attended by more than two hundred administrators, faculty, students, and community leaders.

As Donald Hollowell entered the reception, it was as though that moment was suspended in time. He had the kind of presence I have witnessed only a few times in my life, one that is difficult to describe. He was handsome, debonair, charismatic, and dignified. When a colleague introduced me to him, he bowed and shook my hand, somehow making me feel for that moment that I was his honored guest. In a deep baritone voice, meticulously enunciating every syllable, he said, What a distinct honor to meet such a distinguished professor at the University of Georgia. I am deeply honored to be in your presence.

As we chatted, he talked about what an accomplishment it was for me to serve as a professor at UGA. I was stunned by his sincere humility and deference and, frankly, embarrassed. As a highly privileged beneficiary of his work, I desperately wanted to shift the conversation and express my thanks to him for championing the cause of desegregating the university; however, I simply could not find the right moment to interrupt this great man who had such a noble presence, so I remained quiet.

Fortunately, in my role as president of the Black Faculty and Staff Organization and later as director of the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies, I had the opportunity to escort the Hollowells on numerous occasions during their visits to the university over the next decade and to honor Donald Hollowell formally for his achievements. In 2000, the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies presented Hollowell with the inaugural Foot Soldier for Equal Justice Award for his achievements in civil rights. In my remarks before a standing-room-only audience, I saluted him as a quintessential leader who had done so much for so many with such grace, dignity, and humility. Many of those in my generation had attained positions in education, business, politics, and other areas that would not have been possible without his civil rights work. Nonetheless, in dozens of meetings and in my personal interviews with him, he always presented himself with sincere humility.

Although Hollowell perennially deflected praise for himself, with no children of his own he spoke as a proud father when praising the accomplishments of those he had mentored.² His reminiscences inspired me to begin researching the civil rights movement and the story of the desegregation of the University of Georgia, which eventually led to the creation of the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies, of which this book is a part.

I conducted my first interview with Hollowell on July 27, 1993, and he became my chief research consultant in my quest to chronicle the history of the desegregation of the University of Georgia. He guided and introduced me to civil rights leaders such as Vernon E. Jordan Jr. and Constance Baker Motley, as well as to high-profile southern opposition leaders including former governor and senator Herman Talmadge and former governor Ernest Vandiver. His powerful and dynamic influence led me to research the untold story of Horace T. Ward and his pioneering role in the desegregation of the University of Georgia. Hollowell had represented Ward in an assault on UGA’S segregated law school, and Ward later became a partner in Hollowell’s law firm. The research resulted in my book, Horace T. Ward: Desegregation of the University of Georgia, Civil Rights Advocacy, and Jurisprudence, and a companion public television documentary that chronicled Ward’s story and the history of the desegregation of UGA.³

Hollowell trained dozens of lawyers, several of whom achieved national stature in politics and business as well as law. They include Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who moved to the forefront of the civil rights movement as president of the National Urban League; Horace T. Ward, who became Georgia’s first black federal district court judge; and Howard Moore, who represented black activist Angela Davis in her nationally observed California trial. Hollowell inspired his protégés to selfless, courageous acts as social reformers. For example, Jordan ended his clerkship with Hollowell to serve as Georgia’s field director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the most dangerous jobs in the civil rights movement. In this role Jordan frequently traveled to remote areas of Georgia to investigate complaints related to civil rights violations—as did his counterpart in Mississippi, Medgar Evers.

Jordan noted that it was Hollowell’s unfathomable courage that moved him to take on such work, attributing a great deal of his own courage to Hollowell’s powerful example: For a young man who wanted to become a civil rights lawyer, or any type of lawyer for that matter, there was no better teacher and mentor than Don Hollowell. . . . Traveling the dangerous roads of Georgia practicing law was old hat to him. A calm leader makes for calm troops. His demeanor set the tone for the rest of us.⁴

Hollowell’s historical visibility has, for the most part, been limited to his role in the Holmes v. Danner case and his representation of Martin Luther King Jr. in the King v. State case.⁵ Indeed, he etched his place in history in the Holmes case by leading the legal battle to desegregate higher education in Georgia and in the King case by securing King’s release after he was sent to Georgia’s maximum-security prison for a charge stemming from a minor traffic offense. Even in these cases, however, the full measure and impact of Hollowell’s achievements have not been illuminated. For example, it is seldom noted that his influence on Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter in the landmark Holmes case helped lay the groundwork for desegregating higher education in other Deep South states as well.⁶

In fact, Hollowell accomplished a great deal more than is generally recognized. In addition to the Holmes and King cases, he played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role as lawyer and chief negotiator in the historic Albany Movement to desegregate the public facilities of Albany, Georgia, and surrounding counties. Hollowell and Albany’s civil rights lawyer, C. B. King, represented King and Ralph Abernathy and secured the release of scores of demonstrators from Albany jails. Yet Hollowell is seldom acknowledged for representing leaders and grassroots activists in this movement. Similarly, little attention has been paid to his role in the precedent-setting federal court victory overturning the restraining order that barred King and other movement leaders from mass demonstrations in Albany. Many scholars and civil rights leaders credit the Albany Movement with laying the groundwork for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) effective use of mass demonstrations in other cities.⁷

Hollowell’s legal work as a defense attorney and his commitment to racial justice saved the lives of many black men whose fate might otherwise have been Georgia’s electric chair. This is not to say that he won every case; despite his legal acumen and at times heroic efforts, in some cases he failed to win justice for his clients or prevent their execution. Nonetheless, Hollowell’s legal work, especially in small Jim Crow towns, provided the foundation for future cases and inspired those he mentored, such as Howard Moore, Vernon Jordan, and Horace Ward, to fight against racial oppression.

Hollowell, like other civil rights attorneys before and during his era, was committed to the cause of social justice and performed his civil rights work out of a sense of duty. In one of my interviews with him, he recalled that his compensation in most of the civil rights cases he litigated was limited to legal fees paid by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). Created in 1940 as a separate, charitable, tax-exempt organization to do the legal work of the NAACP, the LDF often provided expert legal assistance and financial support to local civil rights lawyers.⁸ Hollowell recalled, There was no compensation. We got our expenses paid, but I don’t have any recollection of there being any compensation. There were no monies that went into the corpus of our little firm. The rest of our practice helped us to keep our doors open.⁹

During Hollowell’s service as chairman of the legal redress committee for the NAACP Georgia State Conference of Branches, he reported to the conference that often there were not the funds available either in the State Conference Treasury or from the requesting individual with which to defray nominal expenses.¹⁰ Even in his most celebrated case, which led to the desegregation of UGA, he recalled that he received only fees for legal expenses paid by the LDF. (Hamilton Holmes, who joined Charlayne Hunter as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, confirmed Hollowell’s memory. In my interview with Holmes, who went on to become a successful orthopedic surgeon, he jokingly urged me not to remind Hollowell that he never got paid.¹¹)

Hollowell’s legal work covers a broad spectrum that not only helped justice prevail for individuals subjected to quick trials without due process but also helped Georgia repudiate its segregationist past to become more economically, politically, and socially progressive. For example, in a little-known 1960 case that was nevertheless of great strategic importance, Hollowell represented a black businessman who was relegated to eating in a corner reserved for blacks in a restaurant in the Atlanta airport. As a result of Hollowell’s triumph in the case, Dobbs Houses Inc. was barred from operating its segregated facility at Atlanta’s airport.¹²

The airport desegregation represents just one of the overlooked or forgotten battles that Hollowell won as a quiet soldier in the struggle for social justice. For despite his success, scholars have virtually ignored him in chronicling the history of the civil rights movement. An illustration of Hollowell’s obscurity is the omission of any mention of his work in the epic civil rights documentary series and companion book Eyes on the Prize.¹³

In 2002, concerned by the lack of recognition of Hollowell’s achievements even by the University of Georgia, I recommended Donald Hollowell to the UGA honorary degree committee for an honorary doctor of laws (JD) degree. While I was confident that the committee would include him among the finalists, honorary degrees also require the approval of the university president and the Board of Regents, and Hollowell had humiliated the former university president, the chancellor, the regents, and other university officials in the 1961 Holmes case. I wondered if the university would come full circle and bestow its highest honor on a man who had so resoundingly defeated UGA in a case that was ultimately affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.¹⁴

Therefore, it was a momentous day when the office of the UGA president called to inform me that Hollowell had been approved by the Board of Regents to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. In 2002 Hollowell became the seventy-fifth recipient of the degree, which, after the earned doctorate, is the highest recognition that UGA can bestow. It was a well-deserved honor for a man who had fought vigorously for justice for all Georgia citizens. The eighty-seven-year-old buffalo soldier died of heart failure on December 27, 2004, but his legacy lives on through the scores of individuals he influenced and inspired.

Although this book includes a brief discussion of Hollowell’s early years, education, military service, and employment as a regional director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, its primary focus is his career as Georgia’s undisputed chief civil rights attorney during the critical years of the civil rights movement. Detailing both the challenges and his triumphs in his quest for social justice,