Dedication

Born in 1972 as the Antioch School of Law, the brainchild of Edgar S. and Jean Camper Cahn, the public-service law school now known as the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law would not have survived without the tireless efforts of its adoptive parents, Charles N. and Hilda H. M. Mason.

In 1986, at the suggestion of then-D.C. Council Chairman Dave Clarke, Mrs. Mason, herself then-chair of the District Council Committee on Education and Libraries, instructed her staff to craft legislation to recruit and enroll as students from groups underrepresented at the bar and to train them, to the degree feasible, in a program of clinical legal education. From that point forward, Mrs. Mason invested an ever-increasing amount of her painstakingly accumulated political capital into the cause of establishing and protecting the School of Law. In this seemingly perennial process, she was ably assisted by her husband and political partner, Charlie, a full-time volunteer staff member and acknowledged master of the District’s sometimes arcane legislative and fiscal processes.

With the rebirth of the Antioch School of Law as the District’s public law school, the Masons immediately began to invest more than strictly political capital. Beginning with the entry of the first class, before the bestowal of accreditation or the start of federal financial aid, the Masons donated $100,000 per year for vitally important student scholarships made in the names of civil-rights leaders and family members. Without this support, students would not have been able to afford tuition, and the School might not have survived.

Hilda Mason’s retirement from public office by no means spelled the end of the Masons’ support for the School of Law. Attending all major events for a decade and a half until frail health made it impossible, Hilda and Charlie remained actively engaged, increasing their financial support of the School of Law during the District’s financial crisis, and they continued at that increased level as the institution drove for the highest level of accreditation of the American Bar Association. In all, the Masons donated $4 million.

On November 16, 2004, the UDC-DCSL celebrated the dedication of the law library to Charles N. and Hilda H.M. Mason. After the many speeches praising the Masons’ extraordinary contributions, a feast was shared and the crowd followed UDC President William Pollard and Mrs. Mason to the Charles N. and Hilda H. M. Mason Law Library for a ribbon cutting. The ceremony was followed by a viewing of the Masons’ political and personal memorabilia, brilliantly installed throughout the Library by prominent local artist Lou Stovall. These artifacts— open to public viewing—tell a story in photographs, plaques, and collage of a love between two people. Forged in the Civil Rights movement, it is a love that has borne both personal and political fruit. The mementos document the power that can be released when barriers of race, gender, and region can be bridged. It is proof that love, respect, and cooperation between people can have lasting impact. Building on the similar interracial union of Edgar and Jean Cahn, who founded the Antioch School of Law more than three decades ago, the Masons have provided a number of vital links in a living chain of events that has already led to the provision of some measure of justice for literally thousands of seniors, children with special educational needs, tenants, people with HIV, and others. With the support of this community, this legacy will continue to grow.