Spottswood W. Robinson IV, a retired Richmond lawyer and son of Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III, died Monday. He was 71.

Mr. Robinson, who was an Air Force veteran, died on the same day that the new civil-rights memorial was dedicated at Capitol Square, commemorating a landmark case in which his father played a major role.

On April 23, 1951, Prince Edward County student Barbara Johns and classmates walked out of Robert R. Moton High School in Farmville to protest conditions there and marched to the county courthouse to challenge Virginia's segregated educational system.

The elder Robinson and Oliver W. Hill Sr. were the lawyers who took on the case, which joined with four other suits and became the basis for the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. The court unanimously struck down the doctrine of "separate but equal," effectively desegregating public schools.

Mr. Robinson's survivors include a sister, Nina R. Govan of Greenbelt, Md.

Burial will be private. Plans for a memorial service will be announced at a later date. -- Jeremy Slayton