He helped strike down segregated schools. See how NC, Raleigh will honor him this weekend.
A civil rights attorney who helped lay the groundwork for the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared segregated schools unconstitutional will be honored Saturday in Raleigh, the city where he was born.
An N.C. Civil Rights Trail marker acknowledging the work of Willis “Bill” Graves Jr. will be unveiled at 11 a.m. at 814 Oberlin Road, his birth site and childhood home. The home now houses Preservation North Carolina’s headquarters.
After attending Saint Augustine’s and Shaw universities in Raleigh, Graves earned a law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1919 and became a civil rights lawyer.
He worked with Thurgood Marshall on a 1948 Supreme Court case that “rendered racially restrictive covenants unenforceable.” That case, Shelley v. Kraemer, became a precedent in other major court cases including Brown v. Board of Education.
“North Carolina’s history is all around us, and markers such as this one reveal history in our own backyards,” said Benjamin Briggs, president and CEO of Preservation North Carolina. “This marker, and the Graves-Fields House, will serve as touchstones to an important chapter in our nation’s history.”
Briggs, Mayor Janet Cowell, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela Brewington Cashwell, NC African American Heritage Commission Director Adrienne Nirde and Graves family decedent Susan Mask will speak at the ceremony.
The home was built as part of Oberlin Village, a town built after the Civil War by former enslaved and free Black men and women. It had fallen into disrepair and was restored by Preservation North Carolina.
The N.C. Civil Rights Trail, developed by the N.C. African American Heritage Commission, highlights key places and people in the Civil Rights Movement.
There are more than 30 other markers across the state including one remembering the sit-ins at the Woolworth stores downtown and in Cameron Village, now called the Village District, and markers honoring the Holt family’s efforts to integrate the Raleigh school system.
Correction: The list of speakers was listed incorrectly.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 3:21 PM.
