List of first women lawyers and judges in Mississippi
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Mississippi. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure
Firsts in state history
[edit]
Lawyers
[edit]- First female: Susie Blue Buchanan (1918)[1][2][3][4]
- First African American female: Marian Wright Edelman (1963)[5]
- First known Hispanic American female: Doris Bobadilla (1991)[6][7]
State judges
[edit]- First female: Zelma Wells Price (1929) in 1955[8][9][10][11]
- First African American female: Constance Slaughter-Harvey (1970) in 1976[12][13]
- First female (Mississippi Supreme Court): Lenore L. Prather (1955) in 1982[14][10]
- First female (Mississippi Court of Appeals): Mary Libby Payne in 1995[15]
- First female (Chief Justice; Mississippi Supreme Court): Lenore L. Prather (1955) in 1998[14][10]
- First African American female (Mississippi Court of Appeals): Ermea Russell in 2011[16][17]
- First female (Chief Judge; Mississippi Court of Appeals): Donna Barnes in 2019[18]
- First African American (female) (Twenty-Second Circuit Court District): Tomika Harris-Irving in 2019[19]
Federal judges
[edit]- First African American (female) (Magistrate Judge; U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi): Linda Anderson in 2006[19]
- First female (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi): Sharion Aycock (1980) in 2007[20]
- First female (bankruptcy court): Katharine Malley Samson in 2010[21]
- First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi): Debra M. Brown (1997) in 2013[22]
Attorney General of Mississippi
[edit]- First female: Lynn Fitch in 2020[23]
Assistant Attorney General
[edit]- First female: Evelyn Gandy (1947) in 1959[24]
United States Attorney
[edit]- First female: Felicia C. Adams in 2011[25]
Assistant United States Attorney
[edit]- First female: Euple Dozier in 1955[26]
District Attorney
[edit]- First African American female: E. Faye Peterson in 2001[27]
Assistant District Attorney
[edit]- First female: Kathy King Jackson in 1977:[28]
Political Office
[edit]- First female (Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi): Evelyn Gandy (1947) from 1976-1980[24]
Mississippi Bar Association
[edit]- First female: Joy Lambert Phillips (1980) in 2005[11][29]
- First African American female: Patricia W. Bennett in 2018[30][31]
Firsts in local history
[edit]- Patricia Burchell:[32][33] First female to serve as the District Attorney for Forrest and Perry Counties, Mississippi (2010)
- Latrice Westbrooks:[30] First African American female to serve as the Assistant District Attorney for the Second Circuit Court District (1997) [Hancock, Harrison and Stone Counties, Mississippi]
- Michele Purvis Harris (1987):[34] First female (and African American female) to serve as the Chief City Prosecutor for the City of Jackson, Mississippi (1994) [Hinds, Madison and Rankin Counties, Mississippi]
- Mary Lee Toles:[35] First African American (female) judge in Natchez, Mississippi [Adams County, Mississippi]
- Marie Kepper (1954):[36] First female judge in Forrest County, Mississippi
- Clare Sekul Hornsby:[3] First female to serve as the president of the Harrison County Bar Association
- Faye Peterson:[37] First African American female to serve as the District Attorney for Hinds County, Mississippi
- Michele Purvis Harris (1987):[34] First female (and African American female) to serve as the Chief City Prosecutor for the City of Jackson, Mississippi (1994) and the Public Defender for Hinds County, Mississippi (2012)
- Ermea Russell:[16][17] First African American female to serve as a circuit judge in Hinds County, Mississippi (1998)
- LaRita Cooper-Stokes:[38] First African American female elected to serve as a judge in Hinds County, Mississippi (2014)
- Tomie Green:[39] First female (and African American) to serve as the Senior Circuit Judge in the Seventh Circuit Court District [Hinds County, Mississippi]
- Constance Slaughter-Harvey:[30] First African American female graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law [Lafayette County, Mississippi]. She was the first African American female judge in Scott County, Mississippi (1976).
- Edna Loeb (1936):[40] First female lawyer in Lowndes County, Mississippi
- Patricia Wise:[30] First female (and African American female) to serve as President of the Magnolia Bar Association [Pike County, Mississippi]
- Shequeena McKenzie:[41] First African American (female) judge in McComb, Mississippi (2022) [Pike County, Mississippi]
- Carol L. White-Richard:[42] First African-American female to serve as the Public Defender for Washington County, Mississippi
- Caroline Crawley Moore:[43] First female prosecutor in Winton County, Mississippi (2008)
- Ruth Campbell (1918):[44] First female called to the Yazoo County Bar Association, Mississippi
See also
[edit]- List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
- Timeline of women lawyers in the United States
- Women in law
Other topics of interest
[edit]- List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
- List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Mississippi
References
[edit]- ^ Wilkerson, Lyn (2010-11-08). Slow Travels-Mississippi. Lyn Wilkerson. ISBN 9781452332291.
- ^ "Sara Buchanan". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ a b "Women in the Profession" (PDF). The Mississippi Lawyer. Winter 2011–2012.
- ^ Buchanan was also the first female admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Mississippi (1916), as well as argue a murder case before that court (1917).
- ^ "Edelman, Marian Wright (1939- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
- ^ "1991 Alumna Doris Bobadilla Profiled by The Atlantic | College of Law". law.loyno.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
- ^ Lam, Bourree. "A Lawyer Who Loves Her Job". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
- ^ Ownby, Ted; Wilson, Charles Reagan; Abadie, Ann J.; Lindsey, Odie; Thomas, James G. (2017-05-25). The Mississippi Encyclopedia. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496811592.
- ^ "The Mid-Delta Judge Zelma Price is dead". Newspapers.com. February 25, 1974. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- ^ a b c Krane, Dale; Shaffer, Stephen D. (1992). Mississippi Government and Politics: Modernizers Versus Traditionalists. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 080327758X.
- ^ a b "Capital Area Bar Association". caba.ms. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ Sewell, George A.; Dwight, Margaret L. (2012-01-20). Mississippi Black History Makers. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781617034282.
- ^ Congressional Record, V. 147, Pt. 6, May 9, 2001 to May 21 2001. Government Printing Office. October 2005. ISBN 9780160729669.
- ^ a b "Collins Speaker Series: Lenore Prather » Mississippi State University Libraries". lib.msstate.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
- ^ Wells, Valerie. "Mary Libby Payne". www.jacksonfreepress.com. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ a b "MC|Law Judicial Data Project". judicial.mc.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ a b "EJ Russell seated on appellate court | The Jackson Advocate". Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ Progress, David Helms Pontotoc. "Chief Judge Donna Barnes sworn in as first woman to lead Court of Appeals". Daily Journal. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ^ a b "Copiah County native honored as nation's first female federal trial judge - State of Mississippi Judiciary News". courts.ms.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
- ^ "Mississippi College | Beacon Magazine | A Benchmark Appointment". www.mc.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- ^ "News About You" (PDF). Louisiana Tech Magazine. Summer 2011.
- ^ "School Of Architecture News - Debra M. Brown as Mississippi's first African-American female U.S. District Judge". caad.msstate.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
- ^ Gates, Jimmie E. "Lynn Fitch elected Mississippi's first female attorney general". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
- ^ a b "'A Lady of Many Firsts': Press Coverage of the Political Career of Mississippi's Evelyn Gandy, 1948-83". American Journalism. 2017-12-13. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
- ^ "Mississippi's 2 U.S. attorneys resign". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ Franks, Mona Robinson Mills and Bob (2017). Fulton. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467123792.
- ^ Henry, Daja E. (2024-01-19). "Meet the 5 Most Powerful People in Mississippi's Hinds County Justice System". The Marshall Project. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
- ^ Staff, Mississippi Press. "Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson of Pascagoula honored by Mississippi Bar Foundation". gulflive.com. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ "The Mississippi Bar :: Past Presidents". www.msbar.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ a b c d "Judges Westbrooks, Owens and Wise honored as Trailblazers - State of Mississippi Judiciary News". courts.ms.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ "Faculty Directory". Mississippi College School of Law. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ "Governor appoints first female DA in Forrest County". WDAM. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ Herrington, Charles. "New D.A. sworn-in for Forrest-Perry counties". WDAM 7. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ a b "Michele Purvis Harris | Alumni and Constituency Relations". www.jsums.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ Murphy, Patrick (2020-02-28). "Celebrating Black History: Local museum adds unique dimension to Natchez story". Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
- ^ Beveridge, Lici (June 18, 2017). "Marie Kepper Forged Path for Women in Pine Belt". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ Richards, Kimberley (2018-11-30). "Black Women Break Barriers In Mississippi With Historic Court Wins". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ "LaRita Cooper-Stokes, first Black woman judge in Hinds County, dies at 64". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
- ^ "Judge Tomie Green to retire". WJTV. 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
- ^ "ISJL - Mississippi Columbus Encyclopedia". Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
- ^ "Hometown Heroes: The first female African American Judge in the City of McComb". WJTV. 2021-03-04. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
- ^ "Three state judges honored by Mississippi Bar Foundation - State of Mississippi Judiciary News". courts.ms.gov. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ "Aldermen appoint Kelley to Municipal Judge seat | Starkville Daily News". starkvilledailynews.com. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
- ^ "Virginia Ruth Campbell". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-03-27.