William Robert Ming
American lawyer and activist (1911–1973)
title: "William Robert Ming" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["naacp-activists", "american-legal-scholars", "university-of-chicago-alumni", "university-of-chicago-law-school-alumni", "1911-births", "1973-deaths", "american-civil-rights-lawyers", "united-states-army-officers", "lawyers-from-chicago", "20th-century-american-lawyers", "military-personnel-from-illinois", "20th-century-african-american-lawyers", "burials-at-crown-hill-cemetery"] description: "American lawyer and activist (1911–1973)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Robert_Ming" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American lawyer and activist (1911–1973) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| honorific_prefix | Captain |
| name | William Robert Ming Jr. |
| native_name_lang | English |
| image | File:William_Ming_Jr.jpeg |
| image_size | 150px |
| caption | William Robert Ming Jr. |
| birth_date | |
| death_date | |
| birth_place | Chicago Illinois, US |
| death_place | Chicago Illinois, US |
| placeofburial | Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana, Marion County, Indiana |
| placeofburial_coordinates | |
| alma_mater | University of Chicago |
| birth_name | William Robert Ming Jr. |
| allegiance | United States of America |
| branch | United States Army United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps |
| serviceyears | 1941–1945ing |
| rank | Captain |
| servicenumber | |
| unit | 332nd Fighter Group |
| awards | {{Plainlist |
| spouse | |
| laterwork | Civil rights attorney and law professor |
| website | |
| :: |
| honorific_prefix = Captain | name = William Robert Ming Jr. | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = English | image = File:William_Ming_Jr.jpeg | image_size = 150px | alt = | caption = William Robert Ming Jr. | birth_date = | death_date = | birth_place = Chicago Illinois, US | death_place = Chicago Illinois, US | placeofburial = Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana, Marion County, Indiana | placeofburial_label = | placeofburial_coordinates = | alma_mater = University of Chicago | nickname = | birth_name = William Robert Ming Jr. | allegiance = United States of America | branch = United States Army United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps | serviceyears = 1941–1945ing | rank = Captain | servicenumber = | unit = 332nd Fighter Group | commands = | battles = | battles_label = | awards = {{Plainlist |
- Congressional Gold Medal | spouse = | relations = | laterwork = Civil rights attorney and law professor | signature = | website = William Robert Ming Jr. (May 7, 1911June 30, 1973) was an American lawyer, attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and law professor at University of Chicago Law School and Howard University School of Law. He presided over the Freeman Field mutiny courts-martial involving the Tuskegee Airmen. He is best remembered for being a member of the Brown v. Board of Education litigation team and for working on a number of the important cases leading to Brown, the decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled de jure racial segregation a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Early life and education
Ming was born on May 7, 1911, to Annie and William Ming Sr., a South Side Chicago municipal employee. Later, he worked as a grocery clerk and on wrecking crews while putting himself through the University of Chicago, and was initiated into the university's Iota chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity in 1930.
Ming earned a Ph.B. degree in 1931 and his J.D. degree in 1933 from University of Chicago Law School, graduated Order of the Coif, became one of the first African American members of a law review, and was published in the University of Chicago Law Review's inaugural issue.
Legal career
Ming was admitted to the bar in 1933 and subsequently practiced law in both public and private capacities.
Military service
Ming volunteered and served in the Army's Judge Advocates General Corp, rising to the rank of captain.
Freeman Field Mutiny
He was one of ten officers to preside over the Freeman Field mutiny courts-martial. They were appointed by General Frank O'Driscoll Hunter. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Captain George L. Knox II, Captain James T. Wiley, captain John H. Duren, Captain Charles R. Stanton, captain William T. Yates, Captain Elmore M. Kennedy]], Captain Fitzroy Newsum, 1st Lieutenant William Robert Ming Jr., 1st Lieutenant James Y. Carter. Trial Judge Advocates were: Captain James W. Redden and 1st Lieutenant Charles B. Hall.
Litigation
Ming was one of the architects of the legal strategy leading to the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, working on the litigation team for that case and on a number of the important cases leading to Brown, including Shelley v. Kraemer (declaring unconstitutional state enforcement of restrictive racial covenants in housing) and Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (declaring unconstitutional separate but equal facilities for black professionals and graduate students in state universities).
Other important decisions Ming played a role in include: NAACP v. Alabama (holding state's demand for NAACP membership lists unconstitutional), Sipuel v. Board of Regents (striking the exclusion of qualified black students from all-white state law schools), Ward v. Texas (holding the use of coerced confessions in murder prosecutions unconstitutional), Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada (holding that states that provide a school to white students must provide in-state education to blacks as well), and Virginia State Bar v. S.W. Tucker (Virginia State Bar's attempt to disbar Samuel Wilbert Tucker non-suited/dismissed).
King trial
In Montgomery, Alabama in May 1960, in front of an all-white jury, Ming helped defend Martin Luther King Jr. on perjury charges related to alleged tax evasion, obtaining an acquittal. A "reluctantly admiring" Alabama lawyer was quoted: "Negro or not, he is a master of the law." King wrote of the trial as a "turning point" in his life and praised Ming and his other principal lawyer, Hubert Thomas Delany: "They brought to the courtroom wisdom, courage, and a highly developed art of advocacy; but most important, they brought the lawyers' indomitable determination to win. After a trial of three days, by the sheer strength of their legal arsenal, they overcame the most vicious Southern taboos festering in a virulent and inflamed atmosphere and they persuaded an all-white jury to accept the word of a Negro over that of white men."
King's wife, Coretta Scott King, would later say of the trial: "A southern jury of twelve white men had acquitted Martin. It was a triumph of justice, a miracle that restored your faith in human good."
Organizations
In addition to his litigation work, Ming served in leadership and other capacities such as ACLU counsel, National Veterans Organization President, Illinois Commerce Commission attorney, as a member of the Chicago NAACP Branch and the Illinois state Conference of the NAACP and as a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors.
Academics
Ming was a professor at both Howard University School of Law and University of Chicago Law School, teaching at the latter from 1947 to 1953, where he became the first African American full-time faculty member at a predominantly white law school.
Tax evasion and incarceration
In 1970, Ming was prosecuted for tax evasion and, despite having paid the back taxes and fines, was sentenced to 16 months in prison. In January 1973, he began to serve his sentence. A number of friends and colleagues urged authorities to grant him parole and release from prison.{{cite web |url=http://www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-spingarn/Collm-r.htm |title=Manuscript Collections (M-R) |access-date=2010-07-03 |publisher=Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
Death and legacy
Ming died in a hospital in Chicago on June 30, 1973.
In his eulogy, colleague Robert L. Tucker noted Ming's "finer and most productive years were spent in the trenches and upon the blood-stained battlefields" of the Civil Rights Movement.
In April 1974, the NAACP National Board of Directors created the William Robert Ming Advocacy Award to be awarded annually to a lawyer "who exemplifies the spirit of financial and personal sacrifice that Mr. Ming displayed in his legal work for the NAACP."
References
References
- "William Robert Ming, Jr.". Howard University School of Law.
- "NAACP Legal Department Awards". NAACP.
- (December 1973). "A Case of Black and White". [[Ebony (magazine).
- Lawrence P. Scott and William M. Womack. (1998). "Double V: The Civil Rights Struggle of the Tuskegee Airmen". Michigan State University Press.
- (2008). "Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen". Pelican Publishing Company.
- (July 14, 1973). "NAACP attorney dies in Chicago". [[Afro-American (newspaper).
- {{cite court. (June 1, 1942). link
- (January 1961). "Case Dismissed". [[The Crisis]].
- (February 3, 1962). "Va. Court Drops Charges Against NAACP Attorney". [[Afro-American (newspaper).
- S.J. Ackerman. (Jun 11, 2000). "The Trials of S.W. Tucker; The Alexandria-born lawyer wasn't one of the most famous leaders of the civil rights struggle. But his enemies always knew who he was.". Washington Post.
- Steve W. Duncan. (May 28, 1960). "Ala. agent admits 'ok' of Dr. King". Afro-American.
- (May 26, 1960). "King defense Planning Lengthy Testimony". Florence Times.
- Dyer, Edgar. (2003). "A "Triumph of Justice" in Alabama: the 1960 Perjury Trial of Martin Luther King Jr.". The Journal of African American History.
- Jim McElhatton. (December 7, 2008). "Standing on 'the shoulders of Bob Ming'". Washington Times.
- Martin Luther King and Clayborne Carson. (1998). "The autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr". Grand Central Publishing.
- "NAACP Legal Department Awards". NAACP.
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