Black Women Lawyers: 125 Years at the Bar; 100 Years in the Legal Academy
![handle is hein.journals/howlj40 and id is 373 raw text is: Black Women Lawyers: 125 Years at the
Bar; 100 Years in the Legal Academy
J. CLAY SMITH, JR.*
In 1833, Maria Stewart posed a question that is relevant today:
When I cast my eyes on the long list of illustrious names of fame
among the whites, I turn my eyes within, and ask my thoughts,
'Where are the names of our illustrious ones?
* J. Clay Smith, Jr., 1996, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law.
I acknowledge the able assistance of Johnine F. Waters, my former legal assistant, who
wrote an initial draft recommending an approach to take in writing this piece. In April, 1996,
Johnine died, too soon after graduating from the law school and her wedding. This article is
dedicated to Johnine F. Waters-Brown whose rich love of life inspired all the people in her midst.
1. Maria Stewart, Address at the African Masonic Hall, Boston, Mass. (Feb. 27, 1833), in
BLACK WOMEN IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN LrFE: THEm WORDS, THEIm THOUGHTS,
THEIR FEELINGS 195 (Bert James Loewenberg and Ruth Bogen eds., 1976) [hereinafter BLACK
WOMEN]. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, black women were aware that separate
facts and figures relative to colored women are not easily obtainable. Fannie Barrier Williams,
The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women of the United States Since the Emancipation
Proclamation, Address, in BLACK WOMEN, supra, at 271. On the other hand, [a]mong the white
women of the country independence, progressive, intelligent, and definite interests have done so
much that nearly every fact and item illustrative of their progress and status is classified and
easily accessible. Id.
Maria Stewart's inquiry and Fannie Barrier William's claims remain relevant into the twen-
tieth century, particularly as they relate to the documentation of the accomplishments of white
women. See, e.g. WILLIAm C. KING, WOMEN: HER POSMON, INFLUENCE, AND AcHEVEMENT
THROUGHOUr THE CIVILIZED WORLD (1901). In King's book, women are instructed, inter alia,
to devote themselves to law as a profession because the legal profession has large opportuni-
ties for enabling their sex to secure their rights and win substantial victories. Id. at 517. A
number of white women professionals of the world are noted in this book. No black women are
mentioned. See also Sandra Day O'Connor, Portia's Progress, 66 N.Y.U. L. REv. 1546 (1991). In
this important lecture, Justice O'Connor, the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme
Court, mentions Sojourner Truth as a woman in the struggle for equality, but mentions no pio-
neering or modern black women professionals. Id. at 1550.
1997 Vol. 40 No. 2](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/howlj40&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Black Women Lawyers: 125 Years at the Bar; 100 Years in the Legal Academy
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