CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON: "Separate is not equal"

Attorney Charles Jerome Ware wins "Charles Hamilton Houston Award for Outstanding Litigation". (www.CharlesJeromeWare.com)

Charles Hamilton Houston

One of the most influential figures in African American life between the two world wars was Charles Hamilton Houston. A scholar and lawyer, he dedicated his life to freeing his people from the bonds of racism.
Houston earned an undergraduate degree at Amherst College and a law degree at Harvard University. When he returned to Washington to join his father’s law firm, he began taking on civil rights cases. Mordecai Johnson, the first African American president of Howard University, named Houston to head the law school in 1929. Houston set out to train attorneys who would become civil rights advocates.

Charles Houston

Charles Houston was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in American history. A lawyer, in his view, was an agent for social change—“either a social engineer or a parasite on society.”
[americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/CharlesHamiltonHouston]
 
"WARE WINS AWARD FOR LEGAL ADVOCACY"
 
If Charles Ware had a personal motto, it would probably read, "Defend the Underdog" - particularly if the underdog is up against a large corporate or government entity. The Columbia-based attorney says he will "take on anybody." And he means it.
 
He has taken on Columbia's primary developer, The Rouse Co, filing a $28 million anti-trust lawsuit against the firm on behalf of local businessman Rob Harper. He has challenged Turf Valley Country Club owner Nicholas Mangione for racist practices and charged the Howard County Police Department with discrimination. And he is representing black Burger King franchise owners in a $500 million class action suit.
Ware is given to using dramatic courtroom techniques, even bringing stuffed animals along, baring their fangs and claws, to demonstrate the monstrosity of big corporate giants.
 
Ware has also flung himself into a courtroom witness stand, mimicked prosecution witnesses, and sent numerous "urgent" press releases to the news media.
 
Ware's style causes Howard County's mostly subdued legal community to raise its collective eyebrows. But that same style - and its results - has garnered him the 1989 Charles Hamilton Houston award for outstanding legal advocacy.
 
The award is given by the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization. It was established in 1980 by former Maryland Congressman Parren Mitchell to "...enhance, expand and defend minority business opportunities and growth."
 
Ware's flair for drama in and out of the courtroom has not affected his professional standing within the legal community. He is a respected lawyer with impressive credentials.
 
Born in Anniston, Ala., the 17-year Columbia resident was formerly a prosecutor for the U.S. Justice Department, chief legal counsel to the head of the Federal Trade Commission, and served as the youngest federal administrative law judge in the history of the United States.
 
Ware currently has a private law practice locally and is the general counsel for the Maryland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Ware himself laughs at being called flamboyant, saying it is a misnomer, but admits that his legal style is "different from the mainstream."
 
He says he feels honored by the minority business group's award because the selection was made by his peers. "What has made me is not my flamboyance, but getting visible cases," he said. "I do relish going against the odds."
 
[Jacqueline E. Burrell, June 8, 1989, THE HOWARD COUNTY TIMES, Columbia, Howard County, Maryland]