Clarence M. Dunnaville Jr. loves to converse about his more than six decades as an attorney and change agent involved in civil rights. He has stories about the many icons he has met and worked with during that time.

“I was involved in so many things through the years,” the engaging 81-year-old Chester- field County resident says. “I was always moving on, trying to make things better.”

Mr. Dunnaville is among a special cadre of African-American attorneys who waged important legal battles against discrimination and forever changed the nation’s landscape.

He is to be honored by the Richmond Bar Association for a lifetime of public service and distinguished service to society beyond the practice of law.

Mr. Dunnaville will be presented with the Hill-Tucker Public Service Award, named for its first recipients — Oliver W. Hill Sr. and Samuel W. Tucker, who were members of the legendary Richmond civil rights law firm of Hill, Tucker & Marsh that successfully dismantled segre- gation barriers in education, employment and government. Mr. Dunnaville joined the firm in 1990 and practiced there through 2000.

The award will be presented at a bar association luncheon Thursday, Feb. 26, at a Downtown hotel. “His selfless dedication to civil rights, pro bono service and juvenile justice more than qualify him for the award,” Lee Martin, executive director of the Richmond Bar Association, explains.

As is his penchant, Mr. Dunnaville humbly speaks of accepting the award.

“I really don’t deserve it,” he says. “All the people who did all the hard work are the support people who made it possible for Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, Henry Marsh, Samuel Tucker, Harold Marsh, myself and others to do what we did. They changed America, and I followed behind them.

“Whatever accomplishments I have made, it would not be possible without many different people who have helped me along the way,” he adds. “I am just a spoke in the wheel.”

Mr. Dunnaville attributes his successes to “hard work, determination and some luck.”

As a student in the early 1950s at Morgan State University in Baltimore, he participated in demonstrations picketing racially segregated theaters and sit-ins at lunch counters.

Mr. Dunnaville recalls going with one of his professors in December 1953 to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, where he heard attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Spottswood Robinson III argue for plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education case in which the high court struck down separate public schools for black and white students.

“Spottswood went first and gave a magnificent argument,” Mr. Dunnaville recollects. “Thurgood then did a tremendous job as well. I’m one of the few people still living who heard those arguments.

“What struck me the most about the experience was when you get to the Supreme Court building, you look up and the words, ‘Equal Justice Under Law,’ are inscribed,” Mr. Dunnaville said. “I knew then that did not exist for black and poor people, and I’ve been trying to do something about it my whole life.”

Mr. Dunnaville earned his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1957.

He then set out to make a difference wherever he could. He worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York and in 1965, he became the first black attorney for AT&T, working in the areas of litigation, labor law, antitrust, commercial and international law.

He took a leave of absence from AT&T in 1967 to volunteer as an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Mississippi.

“I just wanted to try to help to enforce the Voting Rights Act,” Mr. Dunnaville says. “Mississippi and other states refused to comply. We went down there so black people could vote.”

In one particularly harrowing incident, he was assaulted and chased out of Marks, Miss., at gunpoint by a Mississippi law enforcement official while assisting a citizen who was being deprived of his civil rights.

Returning to AT&T and later rising to the position of senior attorney, Mr. Dunnaville co-founded the Council of Concerned Black Executives and the Association for Integration in Management. The organizations worked with businesses to improve corporate opportunities for African-Americans during the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr. Dunnaville also served as executive director of the New York Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, which collaborated with banks, government agencies and community leaders to develop business opportunities for people of color. In the early 1980s, he co-founded Workshops in Business Opportunities to assist minority entrepreneurs gain business skills.

In 1990, he joined the Hill, Tucker & Marsh firm.

“Mr. Hill asked me to join the firm,” Mr. Dunnaville recalls. “I was very familiar with the work of Mr. Hill. He’s from Roanoke, my hometown. I always thought highly of him.”

He served as a principal attorney in a number of important civil rights cases, including the national class action suit brought by black farmers that eventually was settled.

As a founding member of the Oliver White Hill Foundation in 1998, Mr. Dunnaville led a project to purchase and restore Mr. Hill’s boyhood home in Roanoke.

Mr. Dunnaville continues to advocate for the voiceless. Among his latest undertakings: He’s working on projects to introduce restorative justice into the Virginia juvenile justice system, and to improve the bar’s pro bono service to the poor. He’s also assisting a neighbor in a project to provide books for children who utilize Crossover Health Ministries in Richmond.

He’s also a life member of the NAACP.

Here’s a look at this week’s Personality, Clarence M. Dunnaville Jr.:

Date and place of birth: Aug. 9 in Roanoke.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Morgan State University, and a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law. Family: Adult sons, Chris, Peter and Andrew.

Community involvement: Life member of the NAACP and member of Alpha Beta Boule, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg.

Honors won: Many, including the Lewis F. Powell Jr. Pro Bono Award from the Virginia State Bar, the Harold Marsh Award from the Old Dominion Bar Association and the first recipient of the Clarence Dunnaville Jr. Award from the Virginia State Bar Diversity Conference.

What helped shape your uncompromising views against discrimination as a youth: When I was a teenager, I had an aunt and other relatives who lived in Prince Edward County, Va., where they closed schools instead of integrating as they were ordered to do in the Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County case. My cousin, Grace, taught classes in my aunt’s dining room. And the next year, my aunt arranged for my cousins to go to school outside of Prince Edward in Appomattox.

What’s your favorite breakfast: Sometimes a bagel and cream cheese; sometimes bacon and eggs.

Best late-night snack: I eat crackers, cheese and ice cream, and I’m a big cookie guy. Favorite TV show: I’m not a big TV person, but I like to watch the news.

What are your hobbies: I’ve got a big property to take care of, so I prune my trees and do other gardening work. I’m way behind this year. I also like to do artwork, including oil paintings.

Where do you get all your energy: I don’t know, but I need some more.

Who was a mentor: Oliver Hill was one. He and I spent a lot of time together. I traveled all over the country with him. He would give talks and I would go with him.