This fight for equality of educational opportunity (was) not an isolated struggle. All our struggles must tie in together and support one another. . . We must remain on the alert and push the struggle farther with all our might.

Charles Hamilton Houston dedicated his life to using law as a tool to remedy consequences of racial discrimination and break down structures that produce racial inequality. As vice-dean of Howard Law School in the 1930s, Houston not only won the traditionally black school’s accreditation, but he brought in the nation’s top black litigators and teachers to Howard during a time they likely would have been denied professorships at white law schools. Civil rights law was more or less invented under Houston’s leadership at Howard. The school trained nearly a quarter of the nation's black law students including many civil rights luminaries, such as Thurgood Marshall, who won the iconic Brown v. Board of Education case and went on to become a Supreme Court Justice. 

More than half a century after his death, Houston's aspiration for a fair, cohesive, inclusive society remains unrealized. The Institute carries forth Houston's legacy and hopes to help his dream become a reality. We are a hub for scholarship, strategy, socially concerned legal education, and open, engaging and original public forums on matters central to civil rights in the 21st century.