Page 8 - First Coast Vol 4 No 3

THE
FIRST
WOMEN
IN LAW
A timeline of
Jacksonville’s rst
female lawyers
and judges
PRESENTED BY ARCADIA STRUCTURED SETTLEMENTS
1900
1930
1938
Blanche Armwood becomes the rst African-American woman in Florida to graduate law school. She earned her Juris Doctor from Howard University, but sadly passed away before she could be admitted to the Florida Bar.
1958
Bernice Gaines Dorn becomes the rst African-American woman admitted to the Florida Bar. She was born in Tallahassee, but moved to Jacksonville at age 7, and graduated from Stanton High School in 1951. She attended FAMU for both her undergraduate degree and law school
1908
Mary Stewart Howarth- Hewitt becomes the rst woman to graduate from a Florida law school – Stetson University College of Law.
1920
Helen Hunt West becomes the rst woman to register to vote in Duval County after the adoption of the 19th Amendment. She was admitted to the Bar in 1917. She was also a journalist and political activist.
1924
1898
Louise Rebecca Pinnell becomes the rst woman lawyer admitted to the Florida Bar. Ms. Pinnell’s work focused on railways and in 1920 she was hired by the Florida East Coast Railway in St. Augustine and practiced in Jacksonville. She worked for the railway for 25 years and then worked in private practice until 1958.
Edith Meserve Atkinson becomes the rst woman judge in Florida following her election to the Juvenile Court of Dade County.
1926
Anna Bray Lindsley becomes the rst woman hired by the Florida Attorney General’s Of ce.
1970
Gwendolyn “Gwen” Sawyer Cherry becomes the rst African-American woman to serve in the Florida House of Representatives. She was admitted to the Bar in 1965.
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · FIRST COAST · VOL. 4 NO. 3 8