N.C. law school chair honors NAACP's Charles Houston

Jet, April 10, 1995

The first endowed chair in constitutional law to honor the late famed NAACP barrister Charles Hamilton Houston was established at the North Carolina Central University School of Law in

We want to change the focus of giving in our state," said businessman Franklin Anderson, who with his wife, lawyer Susan R. Powell, a lawyer, contributed $667,000 to augment the $333,000 from the state legislature to provide the $1 million needed for the chair.

Chancellor Julius Chambers and Dean Percy R. Luney Jr. hosted the dedication of a bronze relief of the civil rights champion by artist Gail Fulton in the law school lobby. Afterwards, Walter J. Leonard, former president of Fisk University and the author of The Black Lawyer: Then and Now, lectured on the Black man who was the mastermind of the NAACP's legal victories in the '30s, '40s and '50s.

Determined to provide the highest quality of education and training for all students, Anderson, who earned an MBA at Harvard University, and his wife, Ms. Powell, who once served on the school law faculty, hoped to set an example. "We want to change the focus of giving in this state," said Anderson. "We hope to inspire gifts that are lasting and have a significant impact. We want to see Central take its proper place."