Quick Facts
Biography
Graham T. Perry (1894–1960) was a prominent African-American attorney who served as assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois. He is also the father of stage director Shauneille Perry and uncle of playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
Biography
According to the 1900 U.S. Census, Perry was born in April 1894 (some sources indicate either April 22, 1897 or April 22, 1900 ) in Columbia, Tennessee, the youngest child of the Rev. George W. Perry, an escaped former slave, and Charlotte "Lottie" Organ. He received his elementary and secondary school education in Columbia, then attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1923, he received the degree of juris doctor from the Northwestern University School of Law.
He was very active in civil rights, having served as vice president of the Chicago branch of the NAACP.
In 1941, he was elected to the post of assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois. After Nathan K. McGill, he was one of the first African Americans to hold that position in the state. No African American would serve as a state's attorney general until Edward Brooke was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts in 1962.
He died on September 9, 1960 and is buried at the Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago.