The cause of death wasn’t released by the family. He was 84. Hatchett was one of two young lawyers who filed a federal lawsuit against Pontiac Public Schools in 1968 to end its segregation practices. When U.S. District Judge Damon Keith ruled in their favor, requiring busing to end the segregation, it marked the first such legal victory in a northern state. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled state laws allowing school segregation were unconstitutional, was issued in 1954. “He was a fighter for justice,” Pontiac Mayor Deirdre Waterman said about Hatchett. “He was a great man and a hero to the people of Pontiac.”