Volusia County Bar Association knows history is important today.

• Author: Williams, Toyca
• Position: Florida

The Volusia County Bar Association (VCBA) is recording history from the voices of legal legends--a history retold by attorneys who lived, worked, and built the communities in and around Daytona Beach.

Twenty-five attorneys were selected to give firsthand accounts of living and working in Volusia County during the glory days of the beach races, world wars, Southern politics, Jim Crow laws, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, and advances in technology.

"As the calendar changed from 1999 to the new millennium, like most people, our minds turned to history," said Belle Schumann, president of the VCBA. She explained that many great stories about the legal and social aspects of Volusia County were lost when several prominent attorneys passed away.

"These men participated in the most turbulent events of the 20th century. We were saddened at the loss of these fine individuals, but also sorry that their great stories were lost."

Five years ago, the association decided to preserve its rich history by interviewing and recording profound moments in history. Twenty-four oral accounts have been recorded with financial assistance from the Florida Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural and educational organization.

VCBA received three minigrants, totaling $5,500, to complete the project. As a condition of the grants, the association held two public forums at Bethune Cookman College and Stetson University. Copies of the CDs are available at the Volusia County Law Library. Historian and journalist Bill Schumann conducted and recorded the interviews.

"(These attorneys) were first-hand observers of social change during turbulent times," said Kathie Selover, VCBA's executive director. "The project allowed us to record an important part of our local history."

Among those interviewed for the project were Horace Hill, Sr., and Dan Warren, two consummate storytellers and prominent attorneys who recall how the tide of justice rolled in Volusia County.

An ordained minister, civil rights activist, and attorney, Horace Hill, Sr., was lead counsel in one of the most significant cases regarding the desegregation of Florida law schools. Hill represented Virgil Hawkins, a public relations instructor at Bethune Cookman College, who wanted to attend a Florida law school. At the time, blacks had to go out of state to attend law school. Hill was one of 18 black lawyers practicing in the state and in the business of prox6ng that justice doesn't prevail under the separate but...