Born in Richmond VA, Henry L. Marsh, III 1933, attended racially segregated schools as a child. He walked five miles each day to attend a one-room school near Smithfield while white student road past him on a school bus to a modern school building that had teachers for each class room. He graduated with honors from Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond in 1952. Marsh received his B.A in sociology from Virginia Union University and his law degree from Howard University.
In 1961, Marsh began his legal career in a law firm called Hill Tucker and Marsh. In 1966 Marsh was elected to Richmond City Council, where he served as vice mayor from 1970 until his election in 1977 as the first African American mayor of Richmond.
Additionally, Marsh has been involved in some of the most important civil rights cases in Virginia and the United States for more than forty years. In 2008, Marsh became the first African American Chairman of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and Chairman of the Capital Outlay Subcommittee of Senate Finance. Senator Marsh was named an African American Trailblazer in Virginia History by the Library of Virginia and Capital One in 2010 and received the Hall of Fame Award from the National Forum For Black Public Administrators. Today Henry L. Marsh continues his quest for equal opportunity and justice for all.
Senator Henry L. Marsh III, we salute you!
