Earl B. Dickerson (1891–1986) was a prominent African American attorney, community activist and business executive who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hansberry v. Lee. Early life Earl Burrus Dickerson was born on June 22, 1891, in Canton, Mississippi, the son of Edward and Emma Garrett Fielding Dickerson. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Garrett Sr., was born a slave and purchased himself and his wife, Eliza Montgomery, out of slavery prior to the end of the Civil War. Earl's father died in 1896 and Earl was raised by his mother, his maternal grandmother, Eliza, and a half-sister from his father's first marriage, Gertrude. Dickerson first moved to Chicago in 1907 and spent most of the next 10 years there, graduating from a University of Chicago-sponsored prep school in 1909. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1914. During his time spent studying at the University of Illinois, Dickerson helped establish the Beta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and served as the chapter's first president. Following the completion of his college credits, but prior to receiving his degree, Dickerson taught English, debate, and mathematics at the Tuskegee Institute for the 1913–14 school year. In the fall of 1915, Dickerson began attending the University of Chicago Law School. At the end of his second year of law school, Dickerson's legal studies were interrupted by World War I. Dickerson enlisted in the U. S. Army and attended officer's training school at Fort Des Moines. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1917. Dickerson was stationed at Camp Grant and assigned to Company E, Second Battalion, 365th Infantry Regiment, Ninety-second Division. He served in France as a member of the American Expeditionary Forces. After the conclusion of the war, Dickerson became the only black founding member of the American Legion and personally organized the George L. Giles Post 87 in Chicago. Returning to the University of Chicago, Dickerson completed his legal studies in 1920, becoming one of the first African Americans to graduate from the Law School. The University of Chicago Black Law Students Association is named in his honor. Law career In 1921, Dickerson accepted a position as general counsel of the newly formed Liberty Life Insurance Company of Illinois (later Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company), which later became the largest African American owned insurance company in the North. This was not Dickerson's