Donald Lee Hollowell was a leading civil rights lawyer whose landmark victories helped to desegregate Georgia, earning him the moniker “Mr. Civil Rights.” Scholar Maurice Daniels asserts that in this role, Hollowell defended Black men accused or convicted of capital crimes in a recalcitrant racist legal system, represented movement activists arrested for civil rights activities, and fought to undermine the laws that maintained state-sanctioned racial discrimination. For this, Daniels declares that Hollowell’s prowess as a jurist and civil rights activist “saved the soul of Georgia.”
Donald Lee Hollowell was born in Wichita, Kansas, on December 19, 1917, to Harrison Hannibal and Ocenia Bernice Hollowell. With the backing of his family, convinced that education provided for a better quality of life, he enrolled in Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, where he was an honor student and the starting quarterback of the football team. His college tenure was interrupted twice, answering the call to serve this nation in the United States Army during World War II. After an honorable discharge as a Buffalo Soldier in the Tenth Cavalry in 1946 at the rank of First Lieutenant, Hollowell returned and graduated from Lane College in 1947 with honors. After graduation, he enrolled in law school at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, earning his Juris Doctor in 1951.
Photo courtesy of the archives held at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, Atlanta, GA
In 1941, Hollowell met Louise Thornton at a military party sponsored by the United Service Organizations (USO). In 1942, after an eight-month courtship, Hollowell proposed and married the former Louise Thornton on the same day—before she could give notice to her then admirer.
In 1952, Hollowell moved to Atlanta and founded the law firm which later housed some of the most brilliant legal minds in America. During the early 1950s, there were only several Black lawyers practicing in Georgia, and as a result, the Hollowell, Ward, Moore and Alexander firm, based at 859 Hunter Street in Atlanta, brought together most of the Black lawyers barred in the state of Georgia. This firm became the point of departure for many of Georgia’s notable lawyers and earned Hollowell the distinction of being the dean of Black lawyers in the State.
During his 52-year legal career, Hollowell’s firm handled hundreds of civil rights and civil liberties cases in the state and federal courts of Georgia. Some of his watershed cases were his representation of Myra Payne Elliott, Barbara Pace Hunt, and Iris Mae Welch—the three Black women who served as plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit Hunt v. Arnold and desegregated Georgia State University, which now graduates more African Americans than any institution of higher learning in the nation. Other cases included Hollowell’s representation of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes in the case that desegregated the University of Georgia—the State’s flagship university. He also served as the personal attorney to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his many arrests due to King’s non-violent direct action led protests. Furthermore, Hollowell led the legal team that forged a seven-year campaign to enroll Horace T. Ward in the University of Georgia’s Law School. Victorious, Ward later became the Senior Judge for the Northern District Court of Georgia. While many of Hollowell’s success were in high profile cases, he never lost his common touch.
Photo courtesy of the archives held at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, Atlanta, GA
In 1966, Hollowell became the first Black American to head a federal agency in Georgia, tapped by the 36th US President Lyndon Baines Johnson to lead the southeastern office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This commission was established by the President to weed out discrimination based on race and gender. Hollowell’s other civil rights activity included serving as chair of the board and legal counsel for the Voter Education Project in Georgia from 1971 to 1986, where he helped register Black communities to vote in the United States raising the number from 3 million to 5.5 million.
Hollowell died on December 27, 2004. Upon his death, he held senior status in the Atlanta law firm of Hollowell, Foster & Gepp, and P.C. He received five honorary doctoral degrees from universities throughout the nation. He was named the Lawyer of the Year by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Outstanding Georgia Citizen Award from the State of Georgia Secretary of State and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Georgia—the same institution he fought to desegregate. Furthermore, the Donald L. Hollowell Professorship of Law was established by Emory University in 1990. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (Boulé).
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