Attorney James Hall Jr. was a stalwart for civil rights in Milwaukee for decades
James Hall Jr. is being remembered as a quiet but powerful force for civil rights and youth development in Milwaukee for decades. Hall died Jan. 1 after a battle with cancer. He was 69.
Former NAACP Milwaukee Branch President Fred Royal said Hall’s work as a lawyer, along with volunteer efforts on many city boards and committees, helped improve the lives of the disadvantaged in the city.
“He was a quiet force, but man, he was powerful,” Royal said.
In September, the Social Development Foundation presented Hall with its “Don Sykes Legacy Award” for his commitment to impoverished people.
One of the many highlights of the gala was a “Legacy Times” newspaper listing Hall’s accomplishments and commitment to Milwaukee and African Americans in southeastern Wisconsin.
During his acceptance speech, Hall, the son of a peanut farmer in Smithfield, Va., said the Social Development Commission was essential to him moving to Milwaukee in 1978.
“Working with SDC provided a tremendous opportunity for me. I owe a great debt to Milwaukee for providing a landscape where I could focus on civil rights matters. Each of us has a role to play as organizers, change-makers, and visionaries,” Hall said.
“We must not view the challenges as intractable," he added. "If we remain true and committed to the mission, we can transform our city, county, state, and beyond."
When Hall was honored, Royal was one of hundreds in attendance.
“I've known James for 20 years and never knew everything he accomplished. He’s been committed to fighting for civil rights his entire life. I’m just happy he could receive his flowers while he could enjoy them,” Royal said.
At Hall’s gala, his Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity brother, Ron Richards, spoke of Hall’s work as a change agent. During the 1970s, Hall paired members of his fraternity with high school students who wanted to become lawyers and provided campus tours and insight on the requirements needed to enter the profession.
After Hall graduated from the University of Virginia Law School, he moved to Milwaukee. He joined the law firm of Charne, Clancy & Taitelman in June 1979, where his focus was civil rights and discrimination.
Hall worked on Milwaukee school desegregation case
Years before Hall moved to Milwaukee, another attorney, Lloyd Barbee, was in a fight over racial segregation in Milwaukee Public Schools, as Black students were often bused to white-majority schools but taught in separate classrooms.
Barbee filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee School Board and would go on to win the case in 1976. A judge ordered MPS to desegregate but dealt with many appeals and new trials over the next several years.
Hall would work with Barbee in that process, and the men would devise a plan to desegregate Milwaukee schools. Over the next decades, Hall participated in a number of other high-profile court cases.
In the 1990s, he would serve as co-counsel in the landmark class-action redlining suit the Milwaukee NAACP brought against American Family Insurance, resulting in a $16 million settlement.
Hall represented Black firefighters in their discrimination lawsuit against the Milwaukee Fire Department. He challenged the Wisconsin Voucher Program and provided legal counsel to other clients, including the Milwaukee Area Technical College, City of Milwaukee Ethics Board, City of Milwaukee Pension Board, and SDC. In 2011, he served as president of the local NAACP chapter.
He also counseled the City of Minneapolis on programs to benefit American Descendants of Slaves.
“He was such an excellent and skilled attorney and one of the most gracious gentlemen you would ever want to meet,” said retired Milwaukee attorney William Lynch.
Lynch worked with Hall for years, and the two served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.
“He’s one of the most intelligent men I’ve ever met, but I think the thing I loved the most about him was his generosity and care for those in need. He cared,” Lynch said.
Attorney Celia Jackson, who first met Hall in the mid-1970s when they both attended Hampton Institute, which would later become Hampton University, said Milwaukee was the perfect place for Hall to work because it allowed him to take on the challenges many others would run away from.
Jackson said Hall wanted to change the statistics here when it came to discrimination and segregation, and he knew we could be better. While many know Hall for his work in the courtroom, he was equally committed to Black youth.
Idea for 100 Black Men of Milwaukee came at lunch
Hall was co-founder of 100 Black Men of Milwaukee, an organization committed to the intellectual development of youth. The organization lives by the motto, “What they see is what they’ll be.”
The idea for 100 Black Men of Milwaukee came to Hall when he was having lunch with several women in the city. The women wanted to know if he could gather men to mentor kids by showing them alternatives to the negative images many encountered in their lives.
After the luncheon, Hall got on the phone and reached out to other men in the city, including Oshiyemi Adelabu, Bill Rogers, Tony Courtney, and Greg Williams. A few months later, 100 Black Men Milwaukee was incorporated.
“That’s who James was. He was a problem solver, and he was not one to stand by when he saw a problem and not do something about it,” Jackson said.
Hall met the love of his life on a vacation trip to London
Hall loved to travel in his free time, and on a vacation to London, he bumped into the woman who would later become his wife.
Pauline Hall said her sister persuaded her to attend a Halloween Party 1995. After making the rounds at several events, Pauline’s sister convinced her to go to one more spot when she met a “charming gentleman.”
James Hall introduced himself, and they hit it off perfectly. He gave her his card and told her he wanted to stay in contact. The two called each other weekly and visited one another every three months or so for three years.
In 1998, the couple got married in Virginia.
“He was my best friend and so kind and good to me. He was a gentleman. He cared for the disadvantaged, but he also cared for animals. He believed every living thing deserved to live,” Pauline Hall said.
When groundhogs were digging holes and causing problems, and people wanted to kill them, Pauline joked that Hall, in true lawyer fashion, delivered a case for the groundhogs to live.
Hall’s brother, Warren G. Hall, called his brother his idol.
“James was studious and smart, and because he was ten years older than me, he paved the way,” Warren Hall said.
Hall said family folklore has it that his brother was driving the tractor on the family’s peanut farm at the age of four while sitting on their father’s lap. In high school, James Hall sped around in a yellow Dodge Charger RT with mag wheels; he was also in a garage band called 'Everyday People,' playing the keyboard while wearing an Afro and dashiki.
In school, Warren Hall faced the pressure of living up to the academic success of his brother, whom all the teachers loved.
“They would tell me, ‘I know who your brother is. He was so smart.’ So, it was pressure for me to succeed,” he said.
Despite their age difference, the two remained close, even attending the same college. Warren credits his brother for getting him to move to the Midwest. Warren moved from Minnesota to Milwaukee a decade ago and said it was his best decision because it allowed him to spend valuable time with his brother and sister-in-law.
“I moved seven minutes away from him; my brother was the best brother anyone could ever have. James deserves every accolade received because he did so much for so many, and he will be missed,” he said.
A gathering to honor James Hall Jr. will be held Tuesday, Jan. 9, from 10 to 11 a.m. at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 2207 N. 2nd Street. A memorial service will follow at 11 a.m. A funeral service on Jan. 13 at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Smithfield, Va.
Email James Causey at jcausey@jrn.com; follow him on X@jecausey.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hall longtime lawyer and volunteer, formed 100 Black Men of Milwaukee
