The Little School Under the "L"

Dr. Benjamin Hooks

Location:  3rd row of pillars north of Belden.

Installed: Aug. 2016

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      Benjamin Hooks was a DePaul alumni that saw early in his life that he needed to be a lawyer, and fight against racial prejudice and segregation in the courts.   He came to DePaul in 1946 and graduated from the Law School in 1948.  As a native of Memphis Tennessee, and an African American, he came to DePaul as he found that he would not be allowed at any law school in the South.

     His experiences at DePaul prepared him well for his law practice in Memphis. In 1965 he was appointed as the first African American to the Tennessee Criminal Law bench.  In 1972 President Nixon appointed Hooks to head up the F.C.C. and later in 1976 he was asked to head up the N.A.A.C.P. In both cases Hooks showed great talent in leadership, and courage in the face of many changes at both organizations.  

        The design in the Hooks pillar shows many of these accomplishments.  The minister robes that he is featured in show that he was (in 1956) an ordained minister in the Baptist Church.  The grid design of his pillar features many of his great quotes on the fight for equality, and other awards.  In 2007 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Much of the same grid does feature the logo from the Hooks Foundation for Racial Equality at the University of Memphis. And at the center of this logo is a gold buffalo insignia.  This insignia is the emblem of the Army unit that he was part of in WW2.  And it was while he was in this unit that he made the decision to direct his life in the cause of racial equality.