During Howard University’s 101st Charter Day Dinner on March 1, four esteemed alumni whose professional journeys and commitment to the community embody the institution’s mission of truth and service will be honored with the Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement. Donald A. Thigpen Jr., Esq., a 1974 graduate of Howard University School of Law, is among them. 

“When I thought about attending law school, Howard was the only place I wanted to go.” 

Though he followed in his father’s footsteps (Donald Thigpen Sr. was a 1944 graduate of the University’s dental school) by attending Howard Law, Thigpen, who many consider to be a trailblazing figure within the legal profession, did not set out to be an attorney. It was after graduating from Ohio’s Kent State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and beginning his career as the university’s coordinator of minority affairs that a colleague, Dr. Milton E. Wilson Jr., suggested he consider law school. 

“He suggested that I go to law school and when I asked him why, he said you can get a doctorate a lot quicker, but more importantly I think you’d enjoy it,” Thigpen said. 

Stating that he knew he had to get an advanced degree, he decided to take Wilson’s advice and obtain a juris doctorate, joining his law professor cousin at Howard University. “I wanted to go to Howard,” said Thigpen. “At the time they had graduated more Black lawyers than any place else in the country, and of course my cousin taught there.” 

Though he may have “backed into the law,” Thigpen said that his appreciation and understanding of the profession came during his time as a judicial law clerk for Judge Luke C. Moore in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Thigpen went on to join the Bureau of National Affairs as the first Black editor of its legal publication, The Family Law Reporter. 

Thigpen’s expansive career includes 25 years within the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he held several high-ranking positions. He was subsequently the Commercial Division’s senior counsel, where he handled government real estate issues for the District, and also served as the director of attorney hiring for all D.C. government agencies. Other roles include general counsel stints with the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development and the D.C. Redevelopment Land Agency Board, and chief counsel on the development of MCI (now Capital One) Arena.

While an influential member of the D.C. legal community, it’s Thigpen’s contributions to the wider community, including his commitment to mentoring the next generation of lawyers and his contribution to D.C.’s mental health services, that have been largely impactful. 

“We have our own mental health hospital in the District of Columbia; it’s not a federal facility, it’s our facility in the district,” explained Thigpen referencing Saint Elizabeths Hospital. “We have a beautiful facility – it’s a shinning spot on the hill overlooking Washington, D.C.; it’s one of the better things that I had a hand in.”

Founded in 1852 through the efforts of mental health reformer Dorothea Lynde Dix, Saint Elizabeths Hospital became the first federal mental hospital in the United States, and the first public mental hospital in the District of Columbia in 1855. Originally open to patients who served in the armed forces, as well as white and Black residents of the District, Congress ended Saint Elizabeths’ association with the military in 1946, expanding veteran’s hospitals instead. This and changing attitudes toward mental health reduced the need for large public hospitals, and in 1987, the federal government transferred operation of Saint Elizabeths to the District of Columbia. The hospital then merged with the city’s mental health administration to become the DC Commission on Mental Health Services (CMHS), which ultimately developed into a comprehensive mental health delivery system. Thigpen served as the only attorney working on these efforts, leaving a lasting impact on the city.

“It was called the mental health reorganization for the District of Columbia,” Thigpen explained. “What it did was merge the federal mental health hospital, known as Saint Elizabeths, with a D.C. system to revitalize both the D.C. system, by having a mental health hospital, and reorganizing the D.C. mental health system at the time, so you had one system.”   

Thigpen’s willingness to mentor young, up-and-coming, and prospective lawyers has been a consistent part of his life and career. As the hiring officer for government agencies in the city looking to hire attorneys, he was able to work with and recommend many. “It was exciting, and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I like to think I enabled a lot of young fresh attorneys to get a chance to see what it’s like to really do government work.”

Further, in his capacity as the Washington Bar Association vice president, Thigpen initiated a Young Lawyers Division that he says is still thriving today, and as president, its Judicial Council Division, which continues to be a significant part of the organization. He stressed that no one can hold a position forever; there must be a leadership transition which reflects one’s overall impact. 

“You have got to reach back and bring other people along to be great lawyers, not just good lawyers, be great lawyers,” Thigpen said. He credits Howard with teaching him and all students that hard work and dedication is how you become great.

“In a world where things are normally stacked against us, I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else, but Howard.”

“What we all learn at Howard University School of Law is that you can’t work too hard or too long in order to reach your goal, which is to be the best lawyer you can be,” Thigpen said. “I’ve had a lot of jobs and different ways of practicing law and impacting society since attending Howard. Ultimately, I understand that I represent all of us; this is what I try to tell younger lawyers, you don’t just represent yourself, you present all Black people, you represent Howard University, you represent me. That’s a lot of responsibility.” 

The theme of this year’s Charter Day Dinner is “The Power of Possibility.” His advice to would-be and young lawyers: don’t listen to those who say you can’t. “Don’t ever let anybody tell you what you can’t do and what you can’t accomplish. Going to Howard Law School let me know I can accomplish any and everything because of my training there, and the motivation that they instill in you at that University and at that school of law. Everything is possible.” 

“I watch our graduates, and I see that they understand that message,” he continued. “That’s something that they learn there, that anything is possible.” 

“In a world where things are normally stacked against us, I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else, but Howard.”