HUSL Today Salutes

Benjamin Hooks

 Image source: http://fiskuniversity.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/dr-benjamin-hooks.jpg

Benjamin Hooks was born in Memphis, Tennessee on January 31, 1925.  Hooks enrolled in LeMoyne-Owen College, in Memphis, Tennessee where he undertook a pre-law course of study 1941–43. He graduated in 1944 from Howard University nd joined the Army working as a guard of Italian prisoners of war. He was discharged from the Army after the end of the war with the rank of staff sergeant.

After the war he enrolled at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago to study law. He ventured to Chicago for his studies because no law school in his native Tennessee would admit him. He graduated from DePaul in 1948 with his Juris Doctor (J.D.). Hooks passed the Tennesee bar exam and set up his own law practice. He recalled in an interview with Jet Magazine “At that time you were insulted by law clerks, excluded from white bar associations and when I was in court, I was lucky to be called Ben...usually it was just ‘boy.’ [But] the judges were always fair. The discrimination of those days has changed and, today, the South is ahead of the North in many respects in civil rights progress.”

He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1956 and began to preach regularly at the Greater Middle Baptist Church in Memphis, while continuing his busy law practice. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (then known as Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration) along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He also became a pioneer in the NAACP-sponsored restaurant sit-ins and other boycotts of consumer items and services.

In 1965 Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement appointed him to fill a vacancy in the Shelby County criminal court. With this he became the first black criminal court judge in Tennessee history. His temporary appointment to the bench expired in 1966 but he campaigned for, and won election to a full term in the same judicial office.

On November 6, 1976, the 64-member board of directors of the NAACP elected Hooks executive director of the organization. Shortly after his induction, Hooks proclaimed, “The civil rights movement is not dead. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks.” Hooks assumed his position at a time when the NAACP was suffering a decline in membership but he managed to turn it around. Hooks maintained his position until 1992. 

 Image source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2007/11/05/2003996140.jpg

In 1996, the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change was established at the University of Memphis. The Hooks Institute is a public policy research center supporting the urban research mission of the University of Memphis, and honoring Hooks’ many years of leadership in the American Civil Rights Movement. The Institute works to advance understanding of the legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement – and of other movements for social justice – through teaching, research and community programs that emphasize social movements, race relations, strong communities, public education, effective public participation, and social and economic justice.

President George W. Bush awarded Hooks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in November 2007. "As a civil rights activist, public servant, and minister of the gospel, Dr. Hooks has extended the hand of fellowship throughout his years," Bush said.

"It was not an always ... easy thing to do. But it was always the right thing to do."

He passed away on April 15, 2010. The Tennessee House has cancelled its activities so lawmakers can attend the funeral today. He was an avid supporter of civil rights and he will be missed dearly. Benjamin was a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

HUSL Today Salutes Benjamin Hooks!!