About Us
Earl B. Dickerson, 1940
© LIFE Magazine
Named in honor of the trailblazer, activist, and the school's first African-American graduate, The Earl B. Dickerson Chapter of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) is one of the most active student organizations at The University of Chicago Law School. BLSA serves the The Law School community in three major ways:
UChicago BLSA is a multi-faceted organization committed to increasing student and faculty diversity and supporting a high quality of student life at The Law School. We welcome and look forward to receiving your input, advice, and assistance as we work toward successfully executing our mission.
- By creating a forum in which issues that of concern to an increasingly diverse student body and legal profession can be safely articulated, discussed, and promoted;
- By serving as the key affinity group for African-American students, and being sensitive and response to their needs in a way that no other student organization can; and
- By acting as the catalyst to facilitate interaction among BLSA members, African-American alum of the University of Chicago Law School, The Law School Administration, and the legal community in Chicago and beyond.
UChicago BLSA is a multi-faceted organization committed to increasing student and faculty diversity and supporting a high quality of student life at The Law School. We welcome and look forward to receiving your input, advice, and assistance as we work toward successfully executing our mission.
About Earl B. Dickerson
Earl B. Dickerson, dubbed "the Dean of Chicago's Black lawyers," was the first Black graduate from the University of Chicago Law School.
He was born in Canton, Mississippi, June 23, 1891. Fleeing the racial oppression of his native South, he moved to Chicago when he was 15 only to become a pioneering architect for racial and social equality in Chicago's communities such as the Law School's home, Hyde Park. A graduate of the University of Illinois in 1913, he taught for a year at Tuskegee University in Alabama before he completed a law degree here at the University of Chicago Law School in 1920.
His career led him to become the first general counsel of the Supreme Life Insurance Company of America, one of the largest Black-owned insurance companies. He then later became the company's president and chairman of the board. He helped organize the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1939. He was also the first Black Democratic alderman elected to the Chicago City Council; a member of FDR's first Fair Employment Practices Committee; and leader of the movement that broke the color barrier to membership in the Illinois Bar Association.
Throughout his academic and professional career, Earl B. Dickerson saw that much of what he escaped in the South was quite prevalent in Chicago's neighborhoods. Specifically, in Hyde Park, the use of restrictive housing covenants prevented Blacks from obtaining housing in the southern Chicago neighborhood. Perhaps Earl B. Dickerson is most famously known as the power behind Hansberry v. Lee, the U.S. Supreme Court case in which Hansberry (father to Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and author of A Raisin in the Sun) had purchased property in an area south of Washington Park that was governed by a race restrictive covenant. Hansberry won in the Supreme Court and this victory marked the beginning of the end of restrictive real estate covenants in Hyde Park and was one of the most pernicious legal tools of segregation in the North. Earl Dickerson died September 1, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois. (Source: Hyde Park Herald)
He was born in Canton, Mississippi, June 23, 1891. Fleeing the racial oppression of his native South, he moved to Chicago when he was 15 only to become a pioneering architect for racial and social equality in Chicago's communities such as the Law School's home, Hyde Park. A graduate of the University of Illinois in 1913, he taught for a year at Tuskegee University in Alabama before he completed a law degree here at the University of Chicago Law School in 1920.
His career led him to become the first general counsel of the Supreme Life Insurance Company of America, one of the largest Black-owned insurance companies. He then later became the company's president and chairman of the board. He helped organize the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1939. He was also the first Black Democratic alderman elected to the Chicago City Council; a member of FDR's first Fair Employment Practices Committee; and leader of the movement that broke the color barrier to membership in the Illinois Bar Association.
Throughout his academic and professional career, Earl B. Dickerson saw that much of what he escaped in the South was quite prevalent in Chicago's neighborhoods. Specifically, in Hyde Park, the use of restrictive housing covenants prevented Blacks from obtaining housing in the southern Chicago neighborhood. Perhaps Earl B. Dickerson is most famously known as the power behind Hansberry v. Lee, the U.S. Supreme Court case in which Hansberry (father to Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and author of A Raisin in the Sun) had purchased property in an area south of Washington Park that was governed by a race restrictive covenant. Hansberry won in the Supreme Court and this victory marked the beginning of the end of restrictive real estate covenants in Hyde Park and was one of the most pernicious legal tools of segregation in the North. Earl Dickerson died September 1, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois. (Source: Hyde Park Herald)