1922 – 2016
Dr. Julia Hill was a civil rights advocate dedicated to advancing educational equity and social justice. Though Hill spent most of her life in Kansas City, she periodically departed to pursue educational opportunities.
Inspired by her mother, who was a teacher, Hill developed a love of learning early on. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939 and earned her bachelor’s from Lincoln University in Jefferson City in 1943. She later completed a master’s degree in school administration at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1954 and a doctorate from Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1982.
Hill began her career as a teacher at Booker T. Washington, Banneker, and Wendell Phillips schools, eventually advancing to an administrative position. In 1966, she took on a pivotal role in the district’s Title I program, advocating for educational access for all students regardless of income. Elected to the school board in 1984 and serving as president from 1990 to 1996, Hill became known as a fierce defender of educational opportunities for Black children.
Hill’s civil rights work began in the 1950s. In 1958, she helped found the Community Committee for Social Action (CCSA) to protest a group of downtown department stores that barred Black people from dining in their restaurants. After a letter-writing campaign and direct talks with the stores failed, the group organized a picket of the downtown shopping district during the Christmas season. The tactic succeeded, and on February 27, 1959, the targeted stores announced they would integrate their restaurants.
Through the CCSA, Hill continued to champion equitable hiring practices and voter registration in Kansas City. She served as president of the local NAACP chapter from 1971 to 1980 and remained an active member of its executive board thereafter.
When she passed away on August 11, 2016, at 93, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II honored her legacy, remarking, "Great leaders prepare others who are committed to a cause." He added that nearly all the Black leaders he knew in Kansas City were, in some way, students of Julia Hill.