Oliver Hill, Civil Rights Crusader, Dies

Oliver Hill, a Virginia civil rights crusader whose work contributed to the Brown v. Board of Education decision against school segregation, died yesterday at 100. Described as "last lion of the civil-rights movement," Hill was a survivor of D-Day's Omaha Beach landing, and close friends with Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

In 1999, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. "I never had a class with white folks," Hill said. "And I never believed Negro children had to go to school with white children in order to learn. But I fought for school integration because I believed that for the Negro to enjoy the full advantages of our culture, he needed to be associated with the people who run that culture." (More lawyer stories.)