Legal Action

Attorney Conrad Odell Pearson (left) with attorneys, Hugh Thompson, Floyd McKissick, William G. Marsh, and John H. Wheeler.   Photo courtesy of The Herald Sun. Originally from North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library.

Thomas Hocutt, a Black student from Durham, wanted to become a pharmacist. But in 1933, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill denied his application to their Pharmacy school on the basis of race. Attorneys Conrad Pearson and Cecil McCoy took up his case and with the support of the NAACP, filed a…