Stanley Tolliver
Encyclopedia
Stanley Eugene Tolliver, Sr. (October 29, 1925 – January 3, 2011) was an African American
attorney
, school board president
, civil rights
activist, and radio talk show host.
, Tolliver graduated from East Technical High School
in 1944 where he won the state championship in the 440-yard dash and the Ohio State Vocal Contest. His early hobbies were playing the violin
and heavyweight boxing. After graduation, he went on to earn his Bachelor of Laws
degree
at John Marshall School of Law in 1951. During his time there, he majored in opera
, ran on a relay team with Olympic
gold medalist Harrison Dillard
and was the founding president of a pioneering interracial fraternity
that merged into Pi Lambda Phi
. Tolliver went on to pass his bar exam in 1953 and to earn a Legum Doctor
degree in 1968 and a Juris Doctor
degree in 1969. In the interim Tolliver was drafted
into the U.S. Army, served in the Counterintelligence Corps from 1951 to 1953, and served as legal counsel for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
, and the Congress of Racial Equality
. In 1968, he represented Fred Ahmed Evans, who was convicted of murder in a Glenville Shootout
with police. During the case, Ahmed Evans' brother William "Bootsie" was shot to death in the doorway of Tolliver's Quincy Avenue office. Police did not charge the shooter and said he was thwarting a robbery. Tolliver occasionally had a contentious relationship with law departments and often accused police of misconduct
and prosecutors of selectively pursuing convictions. He also believed that police who killed someone should undergo alcohol tests as promptly as possible - as civilian suspects are required to. In 1968, shotgun blasts from a drive-by shooting
barely missed family members in the living room of his house.
. Together with other Ohioans, Tolliver also led the call for the Cleveland Public Schools to desegregate
. In 1977 he was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. After state and local boards of education were found guilty of operating a segregated
school system, Tolliver was appointed to the Committee on the Office of School Monitoring and Community Relations in 1978. From its inception, Tolliver's law practice was characterized by an audacious defense of underdogs. Sometimes Tolliver met with failure, as with Melvin Bay Guyon, who killed FBI Agent Johnnie Oliver, or Mark DiMarco, who kidnapped and slew Mary Jo Pesho in the 1990s. In 1981 he was elected to membership on the Cleveland Board of Education
and in his twelve years of service, was elected board President twice. Beginning with this appointment, he often spoke on the value of more parental involvement in the lives of Cleveland schoolchildren and was firmly entrenched in the issues of civil rights
in the community. He was also a life-long member of the NAACP.
and the local chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers
. For his work with the NAACP, he was awarded the coveted NAACP Freedom Award and for his life's work in Cleveland a street was named after him.
about politics
and events in Cleveland, with emphasis on the plight of poor people and strove to hire minorities and include black history in school curriculum.
in his 50s, won a 400-meter race at a Senior Olympics
and jogged through University Circle
in his 80s. Tolliver was married to the late Dorothy Olivia Greenwood Tolliver for 50 years and was the father of three children. He also sported a large collection of wide brimmed hats and sang solos at Antioch Baptist Church.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, school board president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist, and radio talk show host.
Early life and career
Born in Cleveland, OhioOhio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Tolliver graduated from East Technical High School
East Technical High School
East Technical High School or East Tech is a secondary school under the operation of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, Ohio.-History:...
in 1944 where he won the state championship in the 440-yard dash and the Ohio State Vocal Contest. His early hobbies were playing the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and heavyweight boxing. After graduation, he went on to earn his Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
at John Marshall School of Law in 1951. During his time there, he majored in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, ran on a relay team with Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
gold medalist Harrison Dillard
Harrison Dillard
William Harrison Dillard is an American track and field athlete, only the second male so far to win Olympic titles in both sprinting and hurdling events. Dillard was born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended East Technical High School...
and was the founding president of a pioneering interracial fraternity
Fraternity
A fraternity is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. An organization referred to as a fraternity may be a:*Secret society*Chivalric order*Benefit society*Friendly society*Social club*Trade union...
that merged into Pi Lambda Phi
Pi Lambda Phi
Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity Inc. is a college social fraternity with 35 active chapters and four colonies in the United States and Canada....
. Tolliver went on to pass his bar exam in 1953 and to earn a Legum Doctor
Legum Doctor
Legum Doctor is a doctorate-level academic degree in law, or an honorary doctorate, depending on the jurisdiction. The double L in the abbreviation refers to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both Canon Law and Civil Law, the double L indicating the plural, Doctor of both...
degree in 1968 and a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree in 1969. In the interim Tolliver was drafted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
into the U.S. Army, served in the Counterintelligence Corps from 1951 to 1953, and served as legal counsel for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
, and the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
. In 1968, he represented Fred Ahmed Evans, who was convicted of murder in a Glenville Shootout
Glenville Shootout
The Glenville Shootout was a series of events of violent acts that occurred in the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, from the dates of July 23–28, 1968...
with police. During the case, Ahmed Evans' brother William "Bootsie" was shot to death in the doorway of Tolliver's Quincy Avenue office. Police did not charge the shooter and said he was thwarting a robbery. Tolliver occasionally had a contentious relationship with law departments and often accused police of misconduct
Misconduct
A misconduct is a legal term meaning a wrongful, improper, or unlawful conduct motivated by premeditated or intentional purpose or by obstinate indifference to the consequences of one's acts....
and prosecutors of selectively pursuing convictions. He also believed that police who killed someone should undergo alcohol tests as promptly as possible - as civilian suspects are required to. In 1968, shotgun blasts from a drive-by shooting
Drive-by shooting
A drive-by shooting is a form of hit-and-run tactic, a personal attack carried out by an individual or individuals from a moving or momentarily stopped vehicle without use of headlights to avoid being noticed. It often results in bystanders being shot instead of, or as well as, the intended target...
barely missed family members in the living room of his house.
Later career
In 1970, Tolliver became the only African American attorney involved in the defense of the students charged in the Kent State shootingsKent State shootings
The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...
. Together with other Ohioans, Tolliver also led the call for the Cleveland Public Schools to desegregate
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
. In 1977 he was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. After state and local boards of education were found guilty of operating a segregated
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
school system, Tolliver was appointed to the Committee on the Office of School Monitoring and Community Relations in 1978. From its inception, Tolliver's law practice was characterized by an audacious defense of underdogs. Sometimes Tolliver met with failure, as with Melvin Bay Guyon, who killed FBI Agent Johnnie Oliver, or Mark DiMarco, who kidnapped and slew Mary Jo Pesho in the 1990s. In 1981 he was elected to membership on the Cleveland Board of Education
Board of education
A board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....
and in his twelve years of service, was elected board President twice. Beginning with this appointment, he often spoke on the value of more parental involvement in the lives of Cleveland schoolchildren and was firmly entrenched in the issues of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
in the community. He was also a life-long member of the NAACP.
Other volunteer work
Tolliver chaired the trustees at Antioch Baptist Church, was elected president of the Norman S. Minor Bar AssociationBar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
and the local chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers
National Conference of Black Lawyers
The National Conference of Black Lawyers , is an American association, formed in 1968, to serve as the Black Liberation movement’s legal arm and aid other black activists, it is made up of judges, law students, lawyers, legal activists, legal workers, and scholars.Noted clients included, Angela...
. For his work with the NAACP, he was awarded the coveted NAACP Freedom Award and for his life's work in Cleveland a street was named after him.
Radio show
Tolliver hosted the weekly radio show, “Conversations with Stanley E. Tolliver Sr." on WERE-AM. The show took telephone calls from listeners and continued a dialogueDialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
about politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and events in Cleveland, with emphasis on the plight of poor people and strove to hire minorities and include black history in school curriculum.
Personal life
A lifelong runner, Tolliver completed a marathon in HawaiiHawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in his 50s, won a 400-meter race at a Senior Olympics
Senior Olympics
The National Senior Games or "Senior Olympics" is a sports competition for seniors from the United States. It is a multi-sport event specifically devoted to adults aged 50+ . It is composed of regional competitions held yearly in all American states...
and jogged through University Circle
University Circle
University Circle, is a neighborhood located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is best known for its world-class cultural, educational and medical institutions, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Museum of Art, Lakeview Cemetery, and University...
in his 80s. Tolliver was married to the late Dorothy Olivia Greenwood Tolliver for 50 years and was the father of three children. He also sported a large collection of wide brimmed hats and sang solos at Antioch Baptist Church.