Grave of Donald Lee Hollowell #blackhistorymonth #civilrights - Video

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Born in Wichita, Kansas, and spent much of his childhood in Eureka, Kansas. He earned a high school diploma while serving six years in the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment (the original Buffalo Soldier regiment).Although in Kansas and therefore not subject to the racist Jim Crow laws of the South, he faced blatant racism and discrimination while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Hollowell recounted that "army officials relegated him to eating in the kitchen, sleeping in quarters adjacent to prisoners, and patronizing Jim Crow canteens." Hollowell's experiences with racial segregation and discrimination and his involvement with the Southern Negro Youth Congress after the war inspired him to pursue the study of law to help in the fight for social justice. In 1947, Hollowell graduated magna cum laude from Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and he earned his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1951.

In 1952, Hollowell set up a law practice in Atlanta, Georgia, where he began to play a major role in the burgeoning civil rights struggle. Hollowell became well known for fighting racial segregation in the State of Georgia. Hollowell sued the University of Georgia, charging the institution with racist admission policies. The suit ended in 1961 with a federal court order demanding the admission of two African-American students, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton E. Holmes.

In 1960, Hollowell and co-counsel Horace Ward won a victory in the Georgia Court of Appeals which secured the release of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Georgia State Prison. In another case, Hollowell and members of his firm prevented the execution of a 15-year-old black youth from Monticello, Georgia five days before it was scheduled to take place. Hollowell and civil rights champion C. B. King also defended Dr. King and hundreds of civil rights activists in the historic civil rights campaign in Albany, Georgia known as the Albany Movement.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Hollowell as regional director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a government agency that monitors workplace discrimination. This appointment made Hollowell the first black regional director of a major federal agency. Hollowell remained with the EEOC for nearly 20 years. Hollowell also served as president of the Voter Education Project, where he helped increase the number of African-American voters from 3 million to 5.5 million.

Hollowell died on December 27, 2004, eight days after his 87th birthday, of heart failure.