H. Hill, 80; NAACP Official, Expert on Black Literature

Herbert Hill, 80, who served as the NAACP’s labor secretary from the 1950s to the 1970s and helped establish the black studies department at the University of Wisconsin, died Aug. 15 at a hospice in Madison after a long illness, the university announced.

Hill, an emeritus professor of the university’s Department of Afro-American Studies, worked to desegregate the nation’s building trade unions and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union while at the NAACP. He also applied pressure on Hollywood studios, General Motors and General Electric to open their doors to minority workers.

He was a vocal critic of the Kennedy administration and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission for what he viewed as insufficient action in fighting segregation in hiring.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Hill, who was white, graduated from New York University and earned his master’s degree at the New School of Social Research.

His affiliation with the NAACP started with volunteer work in 1947.

He joined the association as an organizer two years later and became its labor director in 1951.

It was during his tenure with the NAACP that he became an authority on contemporary black literature.

Hill resigned from the organization in 1977 to take the teaching post at the University of Wisconsin.