Samuel W. Tucker

Samuel (S. W.) Tucker was born June 18, 1913 in Alexandria, Virginia. He was graduated from Howard University in 1933 and studied for the Virginia bar, gaining admission to the bar in 1934. He practiced law in Alexandria and organized a sit-in protest in 1939 to desegregate the Alexandria Public Library. Tucker served in World War II as an infantry major in the U.S. Army and moved his law practice to Emporia, Virginia, after the war. He became a lead attorney for civil rights cases in Virginia, and in the 1960s joined with Oliver Hill and Henry Marsh to form the law firm Hill, Tucker & Marsh in Richmond. Tucker was the lead attorney in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Green v. New Kent County School Board in 1968 which ended token integration practices.