entered World War I, Houston joined the U.S. and taught English at Howard University, a historically black college.Īs the U.S. He studied at Amherst College beginning in 1911, was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and graduated as valedictorian in 1915 at age 20, and the only black student in his class. Houston attended segregated local schools, entering M Street High School (now Dunbar) at the age of 12 and graduating at age 15. Charles' mother, Mary (née Hamilton) Houston, worked as a seamstress.

His father William Le Pré Houston, the son of a former slave, had become an attorney and practiced in the capital for more than four decades. Houston was born in Washington, D.C., to a middle-class family who lived in the Strivers' section. He recruited young lawyers to work on the NAACP's litigation campaigns, building connections between Howard's and Harvard's university law schools. Houston is also well known for having trained and mentored a generation of black attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, future founder and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the first Black Supreme Court Justice.

He earned the title 'The Man Who Killed Jim Crow'. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws, especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants. Charles Hamilton Houston (Septem– April 22, 1950) was a prominent African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP first special counsel, or Litigation Director.

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