C.H. Houston Enrichment Program

New England School of Law has worked to foster a comfortable and supportive atmosphere for students of color to help assure their success in law school. A cornerstone of that effort is the "CHHEP" program, established in 1990 to help reduce the isolation often felt by minority students, to address racial bias in the law school community, and promote the diversity of the student body.

Named after Charles Hamilton Houston, the first general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund and former dean of Howard University Law School, the program is voluntary and open to any New England student concerned about issues of race and ethnicity. The program's multifaceted approach combines discussion groups with guest speakers, and community building activities.

First-year discussion group

Members of CHHEP and faculty for first-year courses meet on occasion to discuss issues such as race and ethnicity in the classroom, in the legal profession, and in the law.

Speaker Series

CHHEP sponsors periodic lectures open to the entire law school on issues that affect students of color and the community as a whole. Speakers have included leaders from academia, the legal community, and government.

Asian New Year Celebration

During the spring semester, CHHEP celebrates the Asian New Year with an informal party attended by CHHEP students, staff, and first-year faculty. The Chinese take-out is always superb.

Honor Society

The CHHEP Honor Society recognizes upperclass students who have distinguished themselves academically.

Charles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950)

In 1935, Charles Hamilton Houston began a lonely and dangerous crusade to bring equal education to children in the south. Houston believed that education was the key for blacks achieving equal rights and equal opportunities in this country. You might say that in a real sense in 1935 Houston began to complete the Declaration of Independence and to correct the United States Constitution. Armed with a hand-held camera he traveled the back roads of small southern towns recording the horrendous conditions in which black children lived and learned. In the 1930's, Houston created a legal strategy to attack the vestiges of slavery and defeat the effects of segregation. With the help of a small but talented pool of lawyers he brought to the courts cases such as Missouri v Gaines. Among the lawyers were Judge William Henry Hastie and Thurgood Marshall . These lawyers in the future themselves trained more soldiers in the fight against segregation such as Judges Robert Carter and Constance Baker Motely. The centerpiece of his life was to invalidate the separate but equal doctrine the Supreme Court had established in Plessy v. Ferguson. In 1954, Thurgood Marshall, Houston's ideological son, argued and won Brown v. Board of Education overturning Plessy and invalidating the separate but equal dontrine. [For more on Houston's contribution to this landmark decision, click on The Road to Brown.]

Charles Hamilton Houston's life is a study in altruism. He gave everything he had, indeed his life, to force America to live up to its creed--that all men are created equal. Wherever he saw racism and discrimination, from education to labor to transportation to the military, Charles Houston sought to eradicate those evils. By bringing his talent and dedication into the fray, he enabled future generations to enjoy significantly better lives. He has inspired those future generations to claim what is theirs by right. Although the battle that he fought is far from over, without Charles Hamilton Houston the plight of minorities in America would be far worse than it is today.

Genna Rae McNeil,A Symposium on Charles Hamilton Houston 27 New England Law Review 589 (spring, 1993).

Contact:

Professor Caryn Mitchell
cmitchell@faculty.nesl.edu
CHHEP program supervisor