schools. In 1959, after public schools had been closed in several localities, notably Prince Edward Public Schools, Norfolk Public Schools and Warren County Public Schools, the Virginia Supreme Court and a federal 3-judge panel on January 19, 1959, finally ruled most of the Stanley Plan and Virginia's law prohibiting integrated public schools unconstitutional. Not long after, Governor Almond abruptly dropped "Massive Resistance" as an official state policy; schools in Norfolk and Arlington integrated peacefully on February 5, 1959, and the schools in Front Royal and all locations except in Prince Edward County reopened. Nonetheless, Prince Edward County schools only reopened in 1964 after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. After Massive Resistance collapsed, Hill accepted a job with the Federal Housing Administration, putting his private legal practice on hold for five years, but working to desegregate public housing nationwide. The Virginia NAACP's efforts continued, and Hill returned to his Virginia practice and leadership of the state's legal staff in 1965, after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those statutes, implementation of new U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare regulations (which provided additional funds for districts complying with the racial desegregation mandate), as well as Green v. School Board of New Kent County (1968) finally tipped the balance toward integrated Virginia's public schools. Green, the crucial ruling against freedom of choice plans was argued by Hill's law partner Samuel W. Tucker, supported by a young lawyer Hill had recruited, Henry L. Marsh, III. He continued civil rights litigation as a partner of Hill, Tucker and Marsh in Richmond until he retired in 1998. One of the last partners he brought into the firm, Clarence Dunnaville had worked with him in his youth on the school desegregation cases and continued his work through the Oliver Hill Foundation, which seeks to reuse Hill's former home in Roanoke to provide legal services to the poor through third year students at the Washington and Lee School of Law. The firm closed in late 2015 after Henry Marsh III decided to focus on his duties in the General Assembly. Death and legacy Oliver Hill outlived his beloved wife Bernie by more than a decade, and also outlived many of his contemporaries from civil rights struggles. He mourned his partner and former Richmond judge, Harold M. Marsh Sr.,