tended Hawkins' funeral. Herman and his wife were two of them. The white lawyer began a campaign to rehabilitate Hawkins' reputation. It would virtually destroy Herman's Lake County practice - he is now with an Orlando firm - but on his petition the Florida Supreme Court eight months later restored Hawkins posthumously to membership in the Florida Bar. Among the reasons: ". . . so that the errors in judgment made by Hawkins in his unsuccessful attempt to begin to practice law as a man in his seventies, do not overshadow the value of his service to humanity . . ."
"This decision sets no precedent," said the court, "because it is unique." According to Herman, only one other lawyer in the history of the world was readmitted posthumously to the profession of law: Mahatma Gandhi.
Leander Shaw took part in the unanimous decision. Two years later, the court's tradition of rotation by seniority made him the first black chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
Collins and Hawkins had never met. But on the day the Supreme Court restored Hawkins to good standing in the Bar, the former governor thanked Herman for filing the petition.
That year also, the Legislature named the University of Florida's third-year law clinic, whose students represent indigent clients, "The Virgil Darnell Hawkins Civil Legal Clinic." Florida State University named a collection of law books for him. In 1999, at a formal ceremony, the court apologized for its "great mistake" in having kept him out of the Florida law school. In May 2001, following a unanimous vote by the Faculty Senate, the University of Florida gave Hawkins its first posthumous degree.
They will be remembering all this at the Florida Supreme Court Monday, where the portraits of Terrell, Mathews, Roberts and all other former justices will bear silent witness from the walls. There's no picture of Hawkins in that gallery, but no one who ever knew him doubts that he will be watching too.