17. Charles Hamilton Houston, Lawyer
Charles Hamilton Houston is often referred to as “the man who killed Jim Crow.” After experiencing rampant discrimination during military service in World War I, Houston decided that he would go on a crusade to end Jim Crow. He enrolled in Harvard Law School, attaining his Juris Doctorate. The lawyer later went on to be the head of the school and used his connections to recruit many great minds to the civil rights cause. He also worked as special counsel for the NAACP.
