Belford Lawson, Jr.

Belford Vance Lawson, Jr. (July 9, 1901, Roanoke, Virginia – February 26, 1985), was a formidable attorney credited with making at least eight appearances before the Supreme Court.

He attended University of Michigan and was the school's second African American varsity football player, having been preceded by George Jewett in the 1890s. Lawson graduated in 1924 and accepted a position as a professor of economics at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. The president of Morris Brown, John Lewis, a Yale University graduate was instrumental with Lawson's acceptance to Yale School of Law, although he would receive his J.D. from Howard University Law School in 1932.cite book | last=Mason |first=Herman "Skip" | title=The Talented Tenth: The Founders and Presidents of Alpha | origyear=1997 | publisher=Four-G Publishers| year=1999| id=ISBN 1-885066-63-5 | chapter=Belford Vance Lawson]

In 1933, Lawson founded The New Negro Alliance (NNA) in Washington D.C. to combat white-run business in black neighborhoods that would not hire black employees. The NNA instituted a then-radical "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work campaign", and organized or threatened boycotts against white-owned business. In response, some businesses arranged for an injunction to stop the picketing. Lawson, the lead attorney, and assisted by Thurgood Marshall, fought back — all the way to the United States Supreme Court in "New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co." (1938) that safeguarded a right to boycott.cite web |url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=303&invol=552 |title=NEW NEGRO ALLIANCE v. SANITARY GROCERY CO. |publisher=findlaw.com |accessdate=2008-01-05] This became a landmark case in the struggle by African Americans against discriminatory hiring practices, and Don't Buy Where You Can't Work groups multiplied throughout the nation. The NNA estimated that by 1940, the group had secured 5,106 jobs for blacks because businesses could not afford to lose sales during the depression.cite web |url=http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/info-url3948/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=212961&attrib_id=7970 |title=New Negro Alliance's Sanitary Grocery Protest Site |publisher=Cultural Tourism: District of Columbia |accessdate=2008-01-05]

in 1934, Lawson encouraged NAACP special counsel Charles Hamilton Houston to authorize Thurgood Marshall to file the case of "Donald Gaines Murray v University of Maryland" (1935) to successfully challenge biases at the university which had no laws requiring segregation in its colleges. Murray was admitted to the university's law school.

Lawson was part of the legal team that won "Henderson v. Southern Railway Company" (1950), that challenged the Interstate Commerce Commission's approval of railroad racial segregation practices. The case resulted in a landmark lawsuit that abolished segregation in railroad dining cars.

Lawson was the 16^th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek letter organization established for blacks. The fraternity sponsors an annual "Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Contest" in which collegiate members demonstrate their oratorical skills first at the chapter level, with the winner competing at the state, regional and general convention. The fraternity says "the purpose of the Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Contest is to identify problems or special topics of interest within society and determine how the problem or topic relates to the goals and objectives of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated."cite journal |url=http://www.scalpha.org/forms/awards_&_achievements_criteria_handbook.pdf |title=Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Contest |publisher=Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity |work=Awards and Achievements Criteria Handbook |format=PDF |pages=19–23 |accessdate=2008-01-05] Lawson rented the third floor of his Washington D.C. home to fraternity brother and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. during Powell's tenure in Congress.cite web |url=http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/info-url3948/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=215143&attrib_id=7973 |title=Belford V. Lawson and Marjorie M. Lawson Residence |publisher=Cultural Tourism: District of Columbia |accessdate=2008-01-05] In 1973, Lawson was elected President of the National Council of the YMCA.

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