its president in 1938 and 1939. Dickerson led the movement to integrate the Chicago Bar Association and became a member in 1945. In 1945, Dickerson was elected President of the National Bar Association, an organization that included most of the approximately 1,500 black lawyers then practicing in the United States. Dickerson was the president of the National Lawyers Guild from 1951 to 1954, which countered the political positions and racial restrictions of the American Bar Association. Dickerson was a prominent and dedicated activist for civil rights. Dickerson joined the NAACP in 1920 and the Chicago Urban League in 1921. In 1926, Dickerson was appointed the chair of the Legal Redress Committee in the NAACP. From 1941 to 1971, Dickerson served as a national board member of the NAACP. He was also elected to be the president of the Chicago Urban League in 1939 and served until 1955 (with the exception of 1948–49). Dickerson was an involved member of his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi. In addition to serving as the first president of the Beta chapter at the University of Illinois, Dickerson helped organize the first alumni chapter of the organization. In 1924, Dickerson was awarded Kappa Alpha Psi's highest award, the Laurel Wreath. He served as the grand polemarch, or president, of Kappa Alpha Psi from 1924 to 1926. When James B. Parsons, the first African American district judge in a U.S. district court, applied for a faculty membership in Kappa Alpha Psi, Dickerson attended his induction as a national officer of Kappa Alpha Psi. In addition to his various other career achievements, Dickerson was elected president and chief executive officer of Supreme Liberty Life Insurance in 1955 and held this position until 1971. Political career Dickerson formed the South Side Legislative Commission in 1938, which created and advocated for pieces of legislation to the Illinois General Assembly. In 1939, Dickerson was elected to be the first black Democratic alderman of Chicago's Second Ward. During his tenure as an alderman, Dickerson worked to address poor housing conditions for black Americans and the existence of racially restrictive covenants. Dickerson launched the Second Ward Community Fund, which helped low-income individuals afford food and clothing. While initially discounting a Congressional run, Dickerson unsuccessfully primaried William L. Dawson for the 1942 Democratic nomination for the First Congressional District. Dickerson was appointed as a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first Fair Employment Practices Committee