Virginia State Bar Diversity Conference

02/24/2024

Dr. William Ferguson (Fergie) Reid, was a veteran of the Korean War. He founded the Richmond Crusade for Voters in 1956 along with John Mitchell Brooks and Dr. William Thornton to mobilize African American voters during Massive Resistance. In 1968, he became the first African American to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly since 1891. After his service with the Virginia House, he became a regional medical officer for the US State Department.

William Ferguson "Fergie" Reid (born March 18, 1925) is a Virginia physician, politician and civil rights activist. In 1968, Reid became the first African-American elected to the Virginia Assembly since the days of Reconstruction.[1] He won re-election twice to the Virginia House of Delegates, repre...

02/19/2024

Justice Leroy Hassell was the first African American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. After graduating from the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School, Justice Hassell started his career at McGuireWoods, making partner in seven years. He was appointed to the Supreme Court at age 34. Fourteen years later, his fellow justices elected him as Chief Justice, a position he held until his death in 2011.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_R._Hassell_Sr.

02/15/2024

Medgar Evers, a veteran of World War II, specifically, the Normandy landings, was the first field secretary for the State of Mississippi for the NAACP. He worked to overturn laws of segregation in public facilities, expand opportunities for African Americans, and enforce voting rights. He was assasinated in July 1963.

Medgar Wiley Evers (/ˈmɛdɡər/; July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served in World War II, was engaged in effo...

01/15/2024

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Martin Luther King, Strength to Love, 1963

09/26/2023

Our past chair being a great President!

VSB President Chidi James of Blankingship & Keith, P.C. recently visited with Appalachian School of Law Interim Dean David "D.J." Western and ASL law students in Grundy, Virginia, in the Appalachian mountain region. One of eight accredited Virginia law schools, ASL is known for its small class sizes and its commitment to community service. The school serves a region with far fewer lawyers than needed to meet the needs of the population, a situation the American Bar Association has referred to as "legal deserts." Legal deserts are also an issue the Virginia State Bar Access to Legal Services Committee is currently working to address in the Commonwealth, and the topic is covered by lawyers Henry Su and Bruce Russell in the October issue of Virginia Lawyer.
Dean Western presented President James with a challenge pin, welcoming him to the ASL family and congratulating him on his presidency representing the 50,000 lawyers of Virginia. Our best wishes to ASL and their law students in the coming year.

09/20/2023

We’re back! We are getting our Conference to plan the events for the next bar year. If you want to get involved, message this account.

09/01/2023

A big thank you to the Virginia Law Foundation for the $15,000 grant to assist with the Hill-Tucker Institute, the one-week program aimed at high schoolers to teach skills such as advocacy and networking. Here, our chair, Candace Blydenburgh, accepts the check.

03/03/2023

On this day in 1879, Belva Ann Bennet Lockwood became the first woman admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. A year later, she became the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Lockwood was first denied admission to the Supreme Court Bar in 1876, after which she single-handedly lobbied legislation through Congress to allow women to practice before the Supreme Court. In 1884, Lockwood, became the first woman to run for President.

The race was historic not only because Lockwood was the first qualified woman to run for President (Victoria Woodhull ran for President in 1872 but she was not qualified for the office because she did not meet the age requirement) but because, with her running mate Marietta Stow, it is was an all-female ticket. Lockwood ran for President again in 1888.

While she didn’t win, Lockwood’s Presidential campaigns drew much-needed attention to women’s suffrage. Lockwood practiced law well into her 80s. She remained active in the women’s suffrage movement and issues of equality . Lockwood died in 1917, 3 years before ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Belva Ann Lockwood Image "After all, equality of rights and privileges is but simple justice." - Belva Ann Lockwood, 1888 The years following the Civil War brought with them fundamental changes to the social landscape of America. Equal rights for all people regardless of race or s*x was a cause cham...

03/03/2023

Congratulations to Judge Jamar Walker, the first openly LGBTQ+ Federal Judge in Virginia.

Jamar Walker is set to become the first LGBTQ+ person to serve as a federal judge in Virginia. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed his position with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Distri…

02/15/2023

On this day on 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S Supreme Court.
In November 1880, Belvedere Lockwood became the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court when she appeared in Kaiser v. Stickney.

Constance Baker Motley was the first African-American woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court when she appeared in Hamilton v. Alabama, a case involving the right to counsel in a capital case. She also appeared in Meredith v. Fair, the famed case of James Meredith (first black student to attend University of Mississippi.

From the late 1940s through the mid-1960s, Constance Baker Motley did as much as any American to end racial segregation. Yet her memory has receded outside the federal Judiciary, where she became the first African American woman judge. Here is her remarkable story.

02/14/2023

Happy Valentine’s Day! Here is to an amazing “Loving” story.

02/09/2023

Enjoy this profile in Virginia legal .

In honor of Black History Month, we look back at the life of prominent Virginia lawyer J. Thomas Newsome, who was born in 1869 in Suss*x County. Newsome’s parents had been enslaved, but despite this hardship his keen intelligence helped him make his way to what is now Virginia State University. He later graduated from Howard University Law School in 1898.

After graduation, Newsome opened his own law practice, becoming the first African American attorney in Newport News. As a lawyer, he worked to fight discrimination and segregation. He was one of the first Black attorneys to win a case before the Supreme Court of Virginia when he and another Black lawyer, co-counsel Andrew W.E. Bassett, won Davis v. Allen, a voter suppression case, in 1931.

“Lawyer Newsome,” as he was known, helped establish Huntington High School—the first African American high school in Newport News—and worked throughout his career to help Black Virginians vote, despite the many racist obstacles to voting.

In addition, Newsome wrote about and argued for civil rights as the newspaper editor of the Newport News Star and worked as a civil rights advocate who tried to improve the lives of many.

Newsome died in 1942 and over 3,000 people attended his funeral. Today, the elegant Queen Anne style home he purchased in 1906 in Newport News has become the Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center, featuring exhibits related to African American history and culture.

His gravestone in Hampton says simply: “He went about doing good.”