Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association
70 Historical Moments in Honor of
70 Years of Legacy, Leadership, and Service
1955 – 2025
1955
A group of Black lawyers from across the state of Florida, including Paul C. Perkins, G.E. Graves, Francisco Rodriguez, F. Malcolm Cunningham, Sr., Earnest Jackson, Horace Hill, William Holland, I.C. Smith, T.J. Reddick, Charles Wilson, Sr., Earl Johnson, William Fordham, Raleigh Rawls, James Collier, Norris Woolfolk and Henry Arrington, formed the Chi Epsilon Legal Fraternity. Francisco Rodriguez of Tampa was elected to serve as the organization’s first president.
1955
John D. Johnson becomes Miami-Dade County’s second black judge since Reconstruction, and the fourth black judge in Florida, serving from 1955 to 1959. At the time of his death in 2011 at the age of 97, he was the oldest living Black lawyer in the state of Florida.
1955
1956
William M. Holland, Palm Beach County’s first Black lawyer, attempted to enroll his six year old son into Northboro Elementary School and was denied. Holland and his law partner I.C. Smith along with colleague F. Malcolm Cunningham, Sr. filed a federal lawsuit, William Holland v. Palm Beach County School Board. In 1973, the federal court ruled that Palm Beach County schools were required to integrate.
1958
Bernice Gaines Dorn becomes first Black woman licensed to practice law in the State of Florida.
1958
1960
Civil rights activist and lawyer, John D. Due, Jr. enrolls at Florida A&M University College of Law. As an attorney for the Congress of Racial Equality, he helped create a strategy for moving civil rights cases to federal court to avoid biased southern state courts.
1962
W. George Allen becomes the first Black graduate of the University of Florida College of Law. In 1975, he was installed as the 33rd President of the National Bar Association during the 50th Annual Convention in Washington D.C., becoming the first lawyer from Florida to serve as president of the organization. He would later become the first Black president of the Broward County Bar Association in 1988.
1962
1962
President F. Malcolm Cunningham, Sr. became the first Black person since Reconstruction to be voted into public office in Florida when he was elected to the Riviera Beach Town Council. In 1964, F. Malcolm, T.J. Cunningham, I.C. Smith, and William Holland became the first Black members of the Palm Beach County Bar Association.
1963
Charles F. Wilson becomes the first black assistant attorney general in the state of Florida. He would later become Vice President and Chief Counsel in Charge of Legal Affairs of Jim Walters Corporation in 1976.
1963
1965
Paul C. Perkins, Orlando’s second Black lawyer, becomes the first Black City Prosecutor. Earlier in his career, he served as co-counsel with Thurgood Marshall in the case against the Groveland Four, four young Black men wrongly accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, in Lake County. In 1987, the Orlando Chapter of the National Bar Association was renamed in his honor, becoming the Paul C. Perkins Bar Association.
1968
Florida A&M University College of Law graduates its last group of students. In 1966, the institution lost the right to admit students after a decision by the Florida Board of Control. This was precipitated by a vote of the Florida Legislature in 1965 to close the law school and transfer its funds to Florida State University to establish a new law school. Alumni of the “original” FAMU College of Law include, Gwen S. Cherry, John D. Due, Jr., Bernice Gaines Dorn, Rep. Alcee Hastings, Sen. Arthenia Joyner, Jesse McCrary, Jr., Judge Edward Rodgers, Isiah “Ike” Williams, and C. Bette Wimbish.
1968
1969
Upon the inclusion of women in the organization, the Chi Epsilon Legal Fraternity changes its name to Florida Chapter National Bar Association.
1969
C. Bette Wimbish became the first Black member of the St. Petersburg City Council. She was the first Black woman to practice law in Pinellas County.
1969
1970
Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry becomes the first Black woman to be elected to the Florida Legislature, serving the 106th District of the Florida House of Representatives. In 2005, the members of the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division Dade County Chapter elected to rename the organization in honor of Rep. Cherry. It is now known as the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association.
1970
President Delano Stewart opens the first integrated law firm in the state of Florida. He was the first Black lawyer to serve as an assistant public defender in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit and the first Black member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association Board of Directors. In 1983, he became the founding president of the George Edgecomb Bar Association.
1970
1970
Zebedee W. Wright became the first Black student to graduate from the Florida State University College of Law. In 1982, he would become the first Black judge to serve on the Broward County Court bench.
1972
Thomas J. Reddick, Jr. becomes Florida’s first Black Circuit Court Judge since Reconstruction. Judge Reddick was Broward County’s first Black lawyer, Assistant Public Defender, and Court of Record Judge. He was also the first Black judge to serve by assignment on the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The T.J. Reddick Bar Association was founded in his honor in 1982.
1972
1972
James E.C. Perry graduates from Columbia Law School and takes the Georgia Bar Exam. After learning that he and 49 other Black graduates had “failed” the exam, Perry along with 16 other exam takers filed the lawsuit, James E.C. Perry et al. v. Edward S. Sell, Jr., et al., which resulted in a total of 48 new Black lawyers being admitted to the State Bar of Georgia. Perry would later serve as Counsel for the Florida NAACP and become the first Black Circuit Judge in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. On March 11, 2009, he became the 85th Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
1972
Stephan Mickle becomes the first Black lawyer in Alachua County. He would later become the first Black County Court Judge in Alachua County, the first Black Eighth Circuit Court Judge, and the first Black judge to serve on the First District Court of Appeal. In 1998, he was nominated by Bill Clinton to serve as a United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Florida.
1972
1973
George Edgecomb was invested as a Hillsborough County Court Judge on August 13, 1973. He was the first Black judge to serve the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. Prior to his appointment he was the first Black Chief Assistant County Solicitor and Hillsborough County’s first Black Assistant State Attorney. The George Edgecomb Bar Association was founded in his honor in 1983.
1973
Edward Rodgers was appointed to the Palm Beach County Court bench as the Fifteenth Circuit’s first Black judge. He was elevated to the Circuit Court Bench in 1977, serving as the first Black Chief Judge from 1983-1985.
1973
1973
The University of Miami College of Law “Class of 1973” contains the law school’s first Black graduates, including James Burke, Harold Fields, Judge William Johnson, Howard Johnson, George Knox, Henry Latimer, Sonja Mathews, and H. T. Smith.
1974
President Arthenia Joyner becomes the first woman to serve as president of Florida Chapter National Bar Association. She was the first Black lawyer to practice law in Polk County and the first Black woman to practice law in Hillsborough County. She would later become the second woman to serve as president of the National Bar Association (1984-1985), and the first Black woman to serve as Florida Senate Minority Leader (2014-2016). She is the longest practicing Black woman lawyer in the state of Florida.
1974
1974
Thomas E. Stringer, Sr. becomes the first Black graduate of Stetson University College of Law, Florida’s oldest law school. Stringer would later become the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit’s first Black Circuit Court Judge and serve on the Second District Court of Appeal.
1974
President Willie E. Gary opens up the first Black law firm in Martin County, Florida. Earning the nickname, “The Giant Killer,” Gary would become one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States, winning some of the largest jury awards and settlements in U.S. history.
1974
1974
Emerson R. Thompson, Jr. became the first Black Assistant State Attorney in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. He was later appointed to the Orange County Court bench, serving as the Black judge in the Ninth Circuit. He would later be appointed as the first Black Circuit Court Judge and the first Black judge to serve on the Fifth District Court of Appeal. He was the first Black Chief Judge in the Ninth Circuit and Fifth DCA.
1975
Joseph W. Hatchett is appointed by Governor Reubin Askew to be the first Black associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Judge Hatchett would later be nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, becoming the first black person to be appointed to a federal appeals court in the Deep South. He was later reassigned by operation of law to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, serving until 1999.
1975
1976
Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. is appointed to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, becoming the first Black judge appointed to that court. In 1981, he was appointed to the Third District Court of Appeal, serving as the first Black judge on that court as well. In 1993, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Just ten days following his death in 2003, the Black Lawyers Association of Miami-Dade County voted unanimously to change its name to the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association.
1977
After a 28 year long struggle that began in 1949, Virgil D. Hawkins was finally admitted to The Florida Bar on February 9, 1977, at the age of 69. He opened up his law practice in Leesburg, FL. After facing disciplinary proceedings, he filed a petition to resign from The Florida Bar which was accepted by the Florida Supreme Court on April 18, 1985. Hawkins died on February 11, 1988. After his death, a crusade of lawyers led by Harley Herman, petitioned The Florida Bar to posthumously reinstate Virgil Hawkins to The Florida Bar. The petition was granted and Hawkins was reinstated in October 1988.
1977
1978
Jesse McCrary, Jr. became the first Black Secretary of State in the Florida Cabinet since Reconstruction.
1979
Henry Lee Adams, Jr. is appointed to the Circuit Court bench, becoming the first Black judge to serve in the Fourth Judicial Circuit. President Bill Clinton nominated him to serve on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 1993.
1979
1979
Alcee Hastings is appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, becoming the first Black federal judge in the state of Florida. He would later go on to serve as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until his death in 2021.
1981
Leah Simms was appointed to the Miami-Dade County Court, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the history of the state of Florida.
1981
1981
Marilyn Holifield becomes the first Black lawyer to be hired at the law firm Holland & Knight. She would later become the firm’s first Black partner and the first Black woman to be named partner at a major law firm in Florida.
1982
President Warren Hope Dawson is installed as the 40th President of the National Bar Association during the 57th Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Dawson served the Tampa community as a civil rights lawyer representing the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in a lawsuit that desegregated the Hillsborough County Public School District.
1982
1982
Cynthia Everett begins her career at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, where she would become the first Black woman division chief. In 2013, she became the first woman and Black lawyer to serve as City Attorney of Fort Lauderdale. She is a past president of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association and the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association.
1983
Leander J. Shaw, Jr., was appointed by Governor Bob Graham to the Florida Supreme Court. He would later become the Court’s first Black Chief Justice in 1990.
1983
1984
Mary Robinson becomes the first Black general magistrate in Broward County. In 1989, she was appointed to the Broward County Court bench, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.
1988
Hubert Grimes is elected Volusia County Court Judge, becoming the first Black judge to serve in the Seventh Judicial Circuit. He was later appointed to the Circuit Court bench in 1999.
1988
1989
Melvia Bailey Green was appointed to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, becoming the first Black woman Circuit Court Judge in the state of Florida. In 1993, she was appointed to the Third District Court of Appeal.
1990
Sandra Champ is elected to the Marion County Court bench, becoming the first woman and first Black judge to serve in the Fifth Judicial Circuit. She was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court bench in 2000.
1990
1990
President Dianne Gaines becomes the first Black lawyer to be elected to The Florida Bar Board of Governors. In 1985, President Gaines was the founding president of the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division Dade County Chapter, now known as the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association.
1990
Boycott Miami – Under the leadership of President H.T. Smith, a three-year boycott of Miami area hospitality commenced. It became the most successful economic boycott in America since the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1990
1993
During the 68th Annual Convention of the National Bar Association in Boca Raton, FL, the first five Black women to be admitted to The Florida Bar – Bernice Gaines Dorn (1958), C. Bette Wimbish (1968), Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry (1964), Ruby Burrows McZier (1964), and Arthenia Joyner (1969) – were honored with the Pioneer Award.
1993
Peggy A. Quince is appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal, becoming the first Black woman to be appointed to a Court of Appeal in Florida. In 1998, Quince would become the first Black woman to be appointed to the Florida Supreme Court, serving as the first Black woman Chief Justice from 2008-2010.
1993
1993
Nikki Clark becomes the first Black judge and first woman judge to be appointed to the Second Judicial Circuit Court bench. In 1999, she became the first Black woman to be appointed to the First District Court of Appeal.
1995
President H.T. Smith is installed as the 52nd President of the National Bar Association during the 69th Annual Convention in Seattle, Washington. Smith was Miami-Dade County’s first Black assistant public defender and assistant county attorney. He was also the founding President of the Black Lawyers Association of Miami-Dade County, now known as the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association.
1995
1997
Mary Scriven was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge in the state of Florida. She later became a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida in 2008. Prior to taking the bench, she was the first Black woman to serve as president of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers.
1998
Pauline Drake is appointed to the Duval County Court bench and becomes the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
1998
1999
Charles R. Wilson, then U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as a Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Joseph W. Hatchett. In 2024, Judge Wilson took senior status and was succeeded by U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd, who became the third consecutive Black lawyer to hold this seat.
2000
President Evett Simmons is installed as the 58th President of the National Bar Association during the 75th Annual Convention in Washington D.C. She was the first woman appointed by The Florida Bar to the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
2000
2000
As a result of the persistence of Bishop Holifield, longtime General Counsel for Florida A&M University, the Florida Legislature unanimously passes legislation to re-establish the FAMU College of Law in Orlando. The College of Law admitted its first class in 2002.
2001
Under the leadership of President Craig Gibbs, the members of the Florida Chapter National Bar Association elect to rename the organization to the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association in honor and memory of Virgil D. Hawkins.
2001
2002
The Judicial Council of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association was incorporated. In 2006, the organization was renamed the Latimer-Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association Judicial Council in honor of Virgil Hawkins and Henry Latimer.
2002
Juliet Roulhac is installed as the first Black president of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division.
2002
2005
In May 2005, The Florida Bar Board of Governors passed a resolution to rename the Center for Professionalism after Henry Latimer who passed away unexpectedly on January 24, 2005. Over the course of his 30 plus year career, Latimer served as a Broward County Circuit Judge, member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors and President of the VHFCNBA and Broward County Bar Association.
2005
June McKinney becomes the first Black woman to serve as president of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. McKinney would later join the Division of Administrative Hearings as an administrative law judge in 2007. In 2013, she became the first Black woman to serve as president of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary.
2005
2006
President Lanse Scriven becomes the first Black president of the Hillsborough County Bar Association. He would go on to serve on the Florida Bar Board Governors from 2009 – 2017. He served as president of the George Edgecomb Bar Association from 1992 – 1995. In June 2025, Scriven will become chair of the Board of Directors of the Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company.
2006
President Linnes Finney is installed as the 64th President of the National Bar Association during the 81st Annual Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Finney previously served as chair of the judicial nominating committees for the Florida Supreme Court (1996-2000) and the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit (1992-1996).
2006
2009
Under the leadership of Judge June McKinney, Justice Peggy Quince, Janeia Daniels Ingram, and President Rachelle Munson, the publication “Florida’s First Black Lawyers: 1869-1979” is presented to the membership and community at large during the VHFCNBA Legacy Gala, held during The Florida Bar Annual Convention on June 27, 2009. Retired Judge John D. Johnson, then the oldest living Black attorney in the state of Florida, was among the 500 plus attendees.
2011
President Daryl Parks is installed as the 69th President of the National Bar Association during the 86th Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2012, Parks and then law partner Ben Crump, represented the family of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old child who was wrongfully followed, shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, FL.
2011
2012
Eugene Pettis becomes the first Black lawyer to serve as president of The Florida Bar. Pettis spearheaded the conceptualization of the William Reece Smith Leadership Academy, a multi-session training program designed to help a diverse and inclusive group of lawyers become better leaders.
2015
President Benjamin Crump is installed as the 73rd President of the National Bar Association during the 90th Annual Convention in Los Angeles, California. Crump has become known nationally as a fierce advocate of civil and human rights. In 2020, he represented the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake.
2015
2015
President Ava Parker becomes the first woman to serve as president of Palm Beach State College.
2016
President Aramis Ayala is elected State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, becoming the first Black State Attorney in the history of Florida.
2016
2018
The publication “Florida’s First Black Lawyers, Volume II: 1980-1989” is presented to the membership and community at large during the second VHFCNBA Legacy Gala, held during The Florida Bar Annual Convention on June 16, 2018. The publication and event honored the trailblazing Black lawyers who were admitted to The Florida Bar in the 1980s.
2020
President LaShawnda Jackson becomes the first Black president of the Orange County Bar Association since its founding in 1933. She would later be elected to the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court bench in 2024.
2020
2020
Gordon Weekes is elected Public Defender for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, becoming the first Black Public Defender in the history of Florida, since the Florida Public Defender system was established in 1963.
2022
The Duval County Courthouse Jury Assembly Room is renamed in honor of Daniel Webster Perkins. He was one of Florida’s first Black lawyers after being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1914. He successfully argued the landmark case before the Florida Supreme Court that allowed African Americans to serve on juries in Florida. In 1968, the Colored Lawyers Association, established in Jacksonville, changed its name to the D.W. Perkins Bar Association.
2022
2024
Augustus Aikens, Leon County’s longest serving County Court Judge, retires after 27 years of service. The Leon County Courthouse is renamed in his honor.
2025
2025 – Sia Baker-Barnes, the first Black woman to serve as President of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, becomes the first Black woman and second Black lawyer to serve as president of The Florida Bar.
2025