Among the crowd of a quarter million at the March on Washington in August 1963, Lem Howell ’58 listened to the words of Martin Luther King Jr., wondering if the civil rights movement had passed him by.

• The McDonogh Report celebrates the contributions of African Americans to the Lafayette community

“As a naval officer, I couldn’t participate,” he says, recalling his days as the first black officer on the USS General Randall. Having recently left the service to finish up his law degree at New York University, Howell didn’t see the direct connection between his future legal career and the promise of Dr. King’s speech. Yet only a few years later, Howell -- now well established with his own Seattle practice -- would be arguing cases creating new opportunities for thousands of African-Americans.

Born in a village just outside Kingston, Jamaica, Howell moved with his family to New York’s Harlem neighborhood in 1946. As he grew, he developed a love for learning. “Good teachers who take an interest in you” are the key, he says, citing his high school math teacher, Eleanor Noble, as his mentor. With her help, Howell won his school’s top award. That success carried over to his college years.

“Lafayette was good to me,” he notes. “The individual attention I got was great for my progress.”

At the time, Howell was one of only 19 black students on campus, but he never felt out of place.

“Dean [Frank] Hunt was a genuinely nice man who understood how to make things better for us on campus,” he recalls.

In that environment, the history major flourished, leading the debate team and receiving a nomination for the George Wharton Pepper Prize honoring the student who best exemplifies the Lafayette ideal.

While at Lafayette, Howell also witnessed the cost of lobbying for civil rights when one fraternity was stripped of its charter by the national fraternal organization for accepting black pledges. He believes that stand signaled a change in race relations.

“You felt that progress had been made, that ethics stood for something,” he says.

Howell attributes his own love for ethics to a strict, Bible-based upbringing, plus an encounter with one of history’s most famous legal wranglings. Watching attorneys battle in the Army-McCarthy hearings fascinated Howell and set his future direction.

“You had a lawyer saying [to Sen. Joseph McCarthy], ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?’ It was very dramatic,” he says.

So during his four years in the Navy, Howell made good on two loves by marrying his fiancé, Pat, and pursuing a law degree. Later, the era’s tensions forced reality on the freshly-minted attorney.

“Doors were closed because of racism,” he says. “When I graduated from law school in 1964, I could never dream of going to work for a large firm.”

With help from a fellowship program for law students that placed them with governors’ offices around the country, Howell saw a chance to work in Washington State for Gov. Albert Rosellini. After passing the bar there, Howell had to change course when Rosellini lost the next election, taking a job with the Attorney General’s office.

In 1968, Howell established a private practice, then teamed with another lawyer, John Miller, a year later. Still green, he would face a trial that year that would forever alter the lives of many African-Americans, Central Contractors Association v. Local 46 IBEW, et al.

In what most considered a labor dispute handled by the National Labor Relations Board, the Central Contractors suit found Howell arguing in federal court on behalf of African-American workers barred from the union, which had been “depriving blacks of their chance for employment.” He framed the litigation as a civil rights issue, winning the case for his clients. The ruling precipitated the federal government’s involvement against the same defendants.

In another construction industry case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Washington, Howell successfully sued for greater safety precautions on job sites. Again, the case sent tremors throughout the country. Howell found his greatest achievement as a lawyer in that case--one of six he would argue before the State Supreme Court--when a justice later said to him at the State Bar convention, “You are a great lawyer. You have great persuasive ability.”

Howell’s successes continue. He’s been listed in The Best Lawyers in America multiple times, been featured on the cover of Seattle magazine’s “Best Lawyers” edition, and was named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association. He continues to advocate on behalf of people confronted with fighting the legal teams of large companies.

“I see too much corporate greed,’ he says, “and, sadly, lawyers are leading that charge.”

At 71, Howell shows no sign of retiring.

“I said that the civil rights movement passed me by, but it didn’t,” he says. “There’s still a lot of work to do in the vineyard.” As Howell notes, his love for doing battle for others recalls the words of General George Patton, “God help me, I do love it so!”

“The type of law I do makes a difference for the injured and poor,” he says. “I’m their champion.”

After meeting the current vice president of the local ironworker’s union, an African-American, Howell looks back to that first federal case in 1969 that paved the way for blacks in construction, and smiles.

“Every once in a while,” he says. “God lets me see that what I’ve done has been beneficial.”