French
DeutschList of first women lawyers and judges in Tennessee
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Tennessee. 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 Tennessee's history[edit]
Law School[edit]
- First (African American) female law graduate: Lutie Lytle in 1897[1][2]
Lawyers[edit]
- First (African American) female: Lutie Lytle (1897)[1][2][3]
- First female (actively practice): Marion Scudder Griffin (1907)[4]
- First female to argue before the Tennessee Court of Civil Appeals: Frances Wolf (1907)[5]
State judges[edit]
- First female: Camille Kelley in 1920[6][7][8][9]
- First female (county judge): Kate M. Drake in 1931[9][10][11]
- First female (probate court): Karen Webster[12]
- First female (court of record): Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968) in 1975[13][14][15]
- First female (Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals): Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968) in 1975[13][14]
- First female (state trial court): Julia Smith Gibbons in 1981[9]
- First African American female: Bernice B. Donald (1979) in 1982[16][17] [18]
- First female (Chancery Court): Sharon Bell in 1986[9]
- First female (Criminal Court of the First Judicial District): Lisa Niddifer Rice (1987)[19]
- First female (Tennessee Supreme Court): Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968) in 1990[13][14][15]
- First female (First Judicial Circuit): Penny J. White in 1990[20]
- First African American female (city court): Earnestine Hunt Dorse in 1990[21][12]
- First African American female (criminal court): Carolyn Wade Brackett in 1994[21]
- First female (Tennessee Court of Appeals): Holly M. Kirby in 1995[9]
- First African American female (circuit court): Rita L. Stotts in 2000[21]
- First female (Chief Justice; Tennessee Supreme Court): Janice M. Holder in 2008[9]
- First African American female (Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals): Camille R. McMullen in 2008[22]
- First openly bi-sexual female: Rachel Bell around 2017[23][24]
- First Latino American female: Ana L. Escobar in 2018[25]
- First African American (female) (Presiding Judge; Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals): Camille R. McMullen in 2023[26]
Federal judges[edit]
- First African American female (Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; bankruptcy): Bernice B. Donald (1979) in 1988[16][17]
- First female (United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee): Aleta Arthur Trauger in 1998[27]
- First African American female (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit): Bernice B. Donald (1979) in 2011[16][17]
- First female (Presiding Judge; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee): Pamela L. Reeves (1979) in 2014[28][29]
Deputy Attorney General[edit]
- First female: Patricia J. Cottrell (1976)[30]
Assistant Attorney General[edit]
- First (African American) female: Etrula T. Trotter in 1974[31]
United States Attorney[edit]
- First African American (female) (Western District of Tennessee): Veronica F. Coleman in 2001[21]
- First female (Eastern District of Tennessee): Nancy Harr[32]
Assistant United States Attorney[edit]
- Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968):[13][14] First female to serve as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee (1968)
- Devon L. Gosnell:[33] First female to serve as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee (1975)
Solicitor General[edit]
Tennessee Bar Association[edit]
- First female (director/secretary): Billie Bethel[36]
- First female president: Pamela L. Reeves (1979) from 1997-1998[28][29]
- First African American (female) executive director: Joycelyn Stevenson[37]
Firsts in local history[edit]
- Susan Marttala:[38] First female to serve as District Attorney in the State of Tennessee as well as for the Thirty-First Judicial District in Tennessee (1986) [Van Buren and Warren Counties, Tennessee]
- Tammy Harrington (1994):[39] First female judge in Blount County, Tennessee
- Elizabeth Barger Ford:[40] First female to practice law in Cocke County, Tennessee
- Hazel Horton Goldstein (1947):[40] First female lawyer in Cocke County, Tennessee
- C. Vernette Grimes:[2] First African American female to graduate from the Kent School of Law in Nashville (1939) [Davidson County, Tennessee]
- Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968):[13] First female lawyer in Nashville's U.S. Attorney's Office. She is also the first tenure-track female professor at Vanderbilt Law School. [Davidson County, Tennessee]
- Andrei Ellen Lee: [41] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Davidson General Sessions Court (2004)
- Rachel Bell:[23][24] First openly LGBT female judge in Nashville, Tennessee [Davidson County, Tennessee]
- Ana L. Escobar:[25] First Latino American female elected as a Judge of the General Sessions Court (Davidson County) (2018)
- Angie Blackshear Dalton:[42] First African American female judge elected in Nashville, Tennessee
- Kate M. Drake:[9][10][11] First female judge in DeKalb County, Tennessee (1931)
- Joyce Ward:[43] First female judge in Hamblen County, Tennessee (1978)
- Marguerite Lanham (1936):[44] First female in Chattanooga, Tennessee admitted to the U.S. District Court (1939) [Hamilton County, Tennessee]
- Sherry Paty:[45] First female to serve as a City Court Judge for Chattanooga, Tennessee (2004) [Hamilton County, Tennessee]
- Ophelia Dukes:[46] First female magistrate in Hardeman County, Tennessee
- Lalla Block Arnstein:[47] First female magistrate in Knox County, Tennessee (1924)
- Charme P. Allen:[48] First female to serve as the District Attorney for Knox County, Tennessee (2014)
- Sue Shelton White:[49] First female lawyer in Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee
- Dabney Anderson:[50] First female magistrate of the Maury County Quarterly Court (1974)
- Nancy Smith Sellers (1950):[51] First female lawyer in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee
- Donna Scott Davenport:[52] First female judge in Rutherford County, Tennessee (2000)
- Camille Kelley:[6][7][8] First female to serve as a Judge of the Juvenile Court of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee (1920)
- Alma Hogshead Law:[53] First female magistrate in Shelby County, Tennessee (1929)
- Nell Sanders Aspero (1933):[54] First female lawyer in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee
- Ann Pugh (1976):[55] First female judge in Shelby County, Tennessee
- Camille McMullen:[12] First female from Shelby County to serve as an intermediate appellate court judge
- Nancy B. Sorak:[56] First female elected as a judge in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. She was also the first female Public Defender for the City Court.
- Earnestine Hunt Dorse:[21][12] First African American female to serve as a judge in Memphis, Tennessee (1990) [Shelby County, Tennessee]
- Carolyn Wade Blackett:[21] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Criminal Court in Shelby County, Tennessee (1994)
- Karen D. Webster:[21] First African American (female) elected as a Judge of the Shelby County Probate Court (2006)
- Amy Weirich:[57] First female to serve as the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee (2011)
- Phyllis Aluko:[58] First female (and African American female) Chief Public Defender of Shelby County, Tennessee (2019)
- Lee Ann Pafford Dobson:[59] First female judge in Collierville, Tennessee (2019) [Shelby County, Tennessee]
- Kee Bryant-McCormick:[60] First African American (female) judge in Sumner County, Tennessee (2022)
- Jane Franks:[61] First female judge in Wilco, Williamson County, Tennessee
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 Tennessee
References[edit]
- ^ a b Smith, John Clay (2000-01-01). Rebels in Law: Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472086464.
- ^ a b c Smith, J. Clay Jr (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1685-1.
- ^ Lytle worked thereafter as an educator and librarian at Tennessee College.
- ^ "Marion Scudder Griffin Collection". memphislibrary.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
- ^ "Frances Wolf | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
- ^ a b "CAMILLE KELLEY, A'MEMPHIS JUDGE; First :Woman Appointed to Municipal Juvenile-Court in the South Is Dead". The New York Times. 1955-01-29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
- ^ a b Hough, Mazie (2015-10-06). Rural Unwed Mothers: An American Experience, 1870-1950. Routledge. ISBN 9781317316459.
- ^ a b "First Woman Judge in the South". The Pioche Record. 1920-05-28. ISSN 2472-176X. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Tennessee Women on the Bench: A History of Firsts | Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts". www.tncourts.gov. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b "Dekalb County | Counties | Counties | History | TN History for Kids". tnhistoryforkids.org. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
- ^ a b "County Spotlight: DeKalb County" (PDF). County Officials E-News. November 2016.
- ^ a b c d Willis, Hon Bernice B. Donald and LaFonda. "Nevertheless, we persist: The history and progress of women in Shelby County judiciary | Opinion". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e Robertson, Suzanne Craig (August 2003). "Judge Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey to Receive Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award: This 'Uppity Woman' has Made a Difference in Tennessee Justice". Tenn. B.J. 39: 16.
- ^ a b c d "Tennessee judge's epic firsts are historic, unparalleled". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ a b "Vanderbilt University Special Collections". library.vanderbilt.edu. 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ a b c Wilson, J. C. (August 2005). Giant Word Search Puzzle Book of Notable Black Firsts and Facts. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595347285.
- ^ a b c "President Obama Nominates Judge Bernice Bouie Donald for United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit". whitehouse.gov. 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
- ^ Judge Bernice Bouie Donald elected the First African American Female Judge in Tennessee’s history (1982). Donald went on to become the first African American female bankruptcy judge in the history of the United States of America in June 1988. Donald became the first African female judge to serve on the U. S. District Court, W. D. Tennessee in 1995 when President William Jefferson Clinton nominated her to the Court and she was confirmed by the U. S. Senate. In 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Donald to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit where she became the first African American female judge so serve on that Court. She was confirmed by the U. S. Senate by a vote of 96/2 in September 2011.
- ^ Staff, News (2014-09-03). "First female judge in the 1st judicial district takes the bench". WCYB. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
{{cite news}}:|first=has generic name (help) - ^ "Penny White". University of Tennessee College of Law. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Milestones « Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association". benfjones.com. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
- ^ Voruganti, Harsh (2020-09-09). "Twelve State Court Judges the Next Democratic President May Elevate to the Court of Appeals". The Vetting Room. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ^ a b Wallace, Harriet (2017-06-16). "Nashville's first openly gay judge talks marriage, controversy". WZTV. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ^ a b "General Sessions Judge Rachel Bell got married — and became the first openly bi-sexual elected judge in Tennessee". OutVoices. 2017-06-03. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
- ^ a b "Newsmaker: Nashville's first Latina Judge Ana Escobar". WKRN News 2. 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
- ^ "Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Elects Judge McMullen Presiding Judge | Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts". www.tncourts.gov. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ^ "Country music legend Dolly Parton among inspiring Women of the Century on Tennessee list". www.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b "Obama nominates new U.S. judge for East Tennessee". timesfreepress.com. May 2013.
- ^ a b "Knoxville lawyer Pamela Reeves nominated for federal judgeship". knoxnews.com. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
- ^ "Ms. Patricia J. Cottrell Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com". martindale.com. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
- ^ Clark Grad is State's 1st Female Asst. Atty. Gen. Jet. 1974-11-07.
- ^ Campbell, Becky. "First woman becomes interim U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Tennessee". Johnson City Press. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "Recognizing the WDTN's First Female AUSA, Devon L. Gosnell, during Women's History Month". justice.gov. 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
- ^ "Andrée Blumstein: Law wasn't first choice for top TN lawyer". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
- ^ "Andree Blumstein '81 appointed Tennessee solicitor general". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
- ^ "Billie Roberta Bethel Obituary (1932 - 2017) Knoxville News Sentinel". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
- ^ "Joycelyn Stevenson '01 to serve as 2016 president of the Nashville Bar Association". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
- ^ "Susan Marttala Appointed First Female District Attorney in the State of Tennessee". The Tennessean. 7 February 1990. p. 57. ProQuest 1909314400.
- ^ Butler, Iva (June 3, 2011). "Gov. Haslam swears in Tammy Harrington as first female judge in Blount County". The Daily Times.
- ^ a b Walker, Eddie (March 2, 2022). "Cocke County's First Woman Lawyer". infoweb.newsbank.com. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
- ^ "RESOLUTION NO. RS2004-378". legisarchive.nashville.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
- ^ “MILESTONES.” Crisis (15591573), vol. 113, no. 5, Sept. 2006, p. 8. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=20fbf1d0-2a7e-3914-a174-e99a7020c9a7.
- ^ "In Memoriam, Joyce Ward". Citizen Tribune. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
- ^ "A NEWS MEMO FOR MEMBERS of the U.S. DISTRICT COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY" (PDF). Eastern District of Tennessee. March 2015.
- ^ "Judge Paty". chattanooga.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Hardeman County, Tennessee: Family History. Turner Publishing Company. 2001. ISBN 9781563117572.
- ^ "Georgiana Vines: Setting the record straight on Lalla Arnstein". knoxnews.com. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- ^ "Knox County Tennessee District Attorney General". knoxcounty.org. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
- ^ "Suffragist Sue Shelton White honored in Jackson". The Jackson Sun. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- ^ "Dabney Anderson -- First Woman Magistrate". The Tennessean. 6 November 1974. p. 12. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- ^ "Class Notes". University of Virginia School of Law. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
- ^ Knight, Meribah; Armstrong, Ken (October 8, 2021). "Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn't Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge". ProPublica. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ Dowdy, G. Wayne (2014-03-18). On This Day in Memphis History. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625845917.
- ^ "Women at Rhodes: 75 Years & Counting" (PDF). Fall 1996.
- ^ Staff, WMCActionNews5.com. "First female judge in Shelby Co. dies at 70". Retrieved 2018-01-03.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Nancy B. Sorak – Women of Achievement". Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ Jones, Lindsay (2011-10-01). "The General". Memphis magazine. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
- ^ "Phyllis Aluko – Law Offices of the Shelby Co. Public Defender". Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- ^ "Lee Ann Pafford Dobson is sworn in as Collierville's first female judge". colliervilleherald.net. January 17, 2019. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ^ LEE, TENA. "'Dream delayed, not denied:' Kee Bryant-McCormick takes oath as Sumner County's first Black judge". Hendersonville Standard. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
- ^ Blanton, Shari Lacy • Photos by Brandy. "Juvenile Court Judge Sharon Guffee". Southern Exposure Magazine. Retrieved 2018-02-09.