Harley Herman – President, Treasurer and Founder

Harley Herman is an attorney who had the privilege of representing clients who were on the other side of clients represented by Virgil Hawkins during Hawkins’ brief 1976-1985 legal career.  Graduating in 1977, Herman began practicing law in 1976, as a law student at the Civil Clinic that is now named for Virgil Hawkins, It was the same year Virgil Hawkins was admitted to the Florida Bar, without the benefit of the UF law school education denied to him by the State of Florida.  Reflecting on his experiences with Virgil Hawkins, Herman has told UF law students:  “I never appreciated my education at UF, until I met the man who was denied that education and was attempting to practice law without the benefits I obtained at our law school.”   

Herman has often described his experiences and encounters with Hawkins’ zeal on behalf of clients, as entering the ring with an aging Mohammad Ali.  “I never met an attorney with more commitment to fighting for his clients’ rights.  The notions of justice radiated out of every pore of his body and often would knock me against the ropes.  I knew if I had encountered Hawkins as a younger man, he would have had me on the canvas in minutes, but he always obtained more for his clients than they would have from other attorneys who turned them away when their pockets weren’t filled with the gold other attorneys sought.”  

Although he never intended to fight for causes, upon reading the many disparaging comments about Hawkins’ final years, in news coverage of Hawkins’ death, Herman knew Hawkins’ right to be honored and Hawkins’ place in history was destined to be lost. He remembered the man he had the privilege to know and the inspiration he provided by his unbending will to dream what others told him was impossible.  Those memories compelled Herman to launch a campaign to restore Hawkins’ reputation, beginning with an unprecedented petition Herman filed with the Florida Supreme Court to posthumously grant the wish Hawkins told the court in 1983:  “When I get to heaven, I want to be a member of the Florida Bar!” 

 Ten months later, despite initial opposition from the Florida Bar and local opposition that destroyed Herman’s formerly successful law practice, the Florida Supreme Court granted Herman’s petition and posthumously granted Hawkins’ wish to be a member of the Florida Bar as he walked the grounds of heaven.(In re Virgil Darnell Hawkins, 532 So.2d 669, 1988)

 Emboldened by this success, Herman asked the University of Florida to name the Civil Legal Clinic where students including Herman had represented the poor that Hawkins wanted to champion, after Virgil Hawkins.   When they refused, Herman secured the assistance of Florida State Senator Carrie Meek and State Representative Alzo Reddick to sponsor the bill that became law in 1989. The law forced the University of Florida to name its legal clinic: The Virgil Hawkins Civil Legal Clinic”. For three decades, students who have received the education Hawkins was denied, represent the poor through the student law office that bears Hawkins’ name..  

Seeing what looked like a pauper’s grave, in a hidden segregated cemetery where Hawkins is buried, Herman then secured a site at the entrance to his birth community of Okahumpka, Florida and using T shirts as a catalyst, raised the funds for a six-foot high monument erected in 1991, which honors Hawkins’ fight to desegregate UF.  He founded the Virgil Hawkins Historical Society, to continue the efforts to let Hawkins’ example inspire this and future generations and to insure that the history of Mr. Hawkins and other civil rights legends are not forgotten.