Who was the first African American women to receive a law-degree?

Answer 1

The historical record is a bit confusing on this issue, with various sources citing three different African-American women as the first to argue before the US Supreme Court. The facts sort as follows:

Luce* Terry Prince: (1724-1821) In 1797, Mrs. Prince became the first African-American woman to argue a case before a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, while he was riding circuit in Vermont.

Prince, who was born in Africa and purchased out of slavery by her husband, a freeman named Abijah Prince, was articulate and well known for her ability to speak eloquently and persuasively. When Colonel Eli Bronson attempted to steal some of the Princes' land in the 1790s, Prince represented her family's interest before the court. Although she had no legal training, Prince argued against two of the best lawyers in the State and won her case. Justice Chase complimented her argument as better than he'd heard from any Vermont lawyer.

*Some sources cite her first name as Luce, while others use the more common spelling, Lucy. Luce or Lucy Terry Prince was a poet, but very little of her work remains.

Violette Neatley Anderson: Violette N. Anderson was born July 16, 1882, in London, England. She and her parents, Richard and Marie Neatley, emigrated to the United States while Violette was a young girl, settling in Chicago. Violette graduated from Chicago's North Division High School in 1899, then worked as a court reporter from 1905-1920. She was fascinated by law and determined to become an attorney herself. She attended post-secondary school at the Chicago Seminar of Sciences from 1912-1915, and earned her LLB (a more advanced law degree than the typical JD) from Chicago Law School in 1920.

Violette Neatley Anderson became the first female Chicago City prosecutor in 1922, then established a successful legal practice in the Chicago area two years later. On January 29, 1926, she became the first African-American woman admitted to the US Supreme Court bar, but never argued a case before the Court. She was active in politics, and played a critical role in passing the Bankhead-Jones Act, "An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts."

Sadly, Anderson died of colon cancer just two years later, in 1937.

Constance Baker Motley: Constance Baker Motley was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1921. She received her bachelor's degree from New York University in 1943, and graduated from the prestigious Columbia Law School in 1946.

Motley began her legal career as Thurgood Marshall's law clerk at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, working at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, she became the first African-American woman to argue a case before the US Supreme Court, Hamilton v. State of Alabama, (1961). Although she lost her first case, Motley went on to argue before the Court nine more times, winning all nine cases.

Motley had other firsts in her long and distinguished career: in 1964 she became the first African-American woman in the New York State Senate; in 1965 she became the first woman (of any race) elected President of the Manhattan Borough; and in 1966 Lyndon Johnson appointed Motley as a judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where she served as the first African-American federal court judge. She remained on the court until her death in 2005.

Constance Baker Motley is considered one of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement.

Answer 2

Mary Ann Shad Cary