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Tampa lawyer carried a 'shield for the oppressed'

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published August 7, 2005

More than 300 people filled a ballroom at Orlando's J.W. Marriott Hotel for the National Bar Association's Hall of Fame luncheon Friday, and perhaps no one had more well-wishers in the room than longtime Tampa lawyer Delano Stewart.

Stewart, 69, was one of six new inductees, and he had several tables full of family and friends, including his wife Carolyn House Stewart, co-chair of the National Bar's eight-day national convention.

It was the perfect backdrop to hear about all he had accomplished in his five decades as a drum major for justice. Yet it was one of Stewart's failures that may have best illustrated his commitment to the law.

Emerson Thompson, appellate judge for the U.S. 5th District Court of Appeals, introduced Stewart by calling upon a story from early in his career.

"When Del Stewart first started practicing law, there was a lady he represented who was suing the bus service," Thompson explained. "He made a mistake, which cost her a settlement. Now he could have lied to her that something happened and those white folks downtown did it.

"But he confessed his mistake and from his own funds, over a period of time, paid her what she would have made in that settlement."

Such testaments to Stewart's character are not uncommon. He has been honored by local and state bar associations, and hailed as the co-founder of the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs. Before going into private practice, he was the first black assistant public defender in Hillsborough County. When he hired an attorney named Martin Lawyer in 1970, Stewart's firm became the first integrated practice in Tampa.

Five of his law partners have gone on to become judges, no doubt thanks to the influence of a man known as the state's dean of black lawyers.

Still, Stewart remained humble in his acceptance, talking not of his stature, but of his goals and motivation. He spoke of lessons learned as a Morehouse College undergraduate, where he was taught that "the tragedy does not lie in not reaching a goal, the tragedy is having no goal to reach."

In the words of the late, great Howard University law school dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, Stewart has devoted his practice to being a "social engineer, not a parasite on society." His goal always has been to serve the most needy.

The National Bar recognition is extremely significant. The 80-year-old African-American organization's Hall of Fame is a veritable who's who of influential lawyers and judges.

Stewart's name has been added to a list that includes Thurgood Marshall and Benjamin Hooks. Joining him as 2005 inductees were Clearwater native Joseph Hatchett, the first black to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, and Leander Shaw, the first black to serve as chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

In 1959, both Hatchett and Shaw were forced to take the Florida Bar Exam in an alternate location because the primary test facility, a Miami hotel, was not open to blacks. Given their success, Hatchett joked, maybe it helped to take the bar in a segregated hotel.

Delano Stewart is many things to many people and many groups: husband, father, attorney, advocate, friend, founder. To me, he is a master storyteller. He often talks about the battles he has waged and the challenges he has endured, but the tales are never fraught with the bitterness one might expect to arise from such experiences. No, Stewart always mixes themes of patriotism, faith, family and fairness. Anyone who has talked to him for more than a minute knows he served in the military for three years, seven months and 21 days. And they've probably heard him talk about fighting cases during segregation when the only "black things in the courtroom were me and the judge's robe."

Drawing humor from such intimidating situations is another testament to his courage, and just one of the many reasons Stewart was a deserving inductee.

He's in my hall of fame, too.

That's all I'm saying.

- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:29:21]