Upcoming Events:
August 8, 2010
WLD Retreat, Marriott Hotel, Canal
Street, 3-7 pm
I’m Every Woman: Come be refreshed, renewed,
and empowered
as you relax your mind, move your body, and
energize your spirit.
$50.00
Register at http://www.nationalbar.org/womenlawyers.html
and click on Retreat Information
New Orleans, Louisiana
August 10, 2010,
WLD Breakfast, “Celebrating the
Past, Embracing the Present, and Capturing the Future” Keynote Speaker, Anita
F. Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law & Women’s Studies, Brandeis
University Honoring
Dr. Dorothy I. Height, “Hats for Height”
New Orleans, Louisiana
August 9-13, 2010
National Bar Association's 85th Annual Convention, Marriott Hotel, Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana
Recent Events:
Respect Yourself Program in St. Louis-Gertrude Rush
Respect
Yourself – St Louis Dream Team
On Saturday, April 10, 2010, the NBA
Women Lawyers Division (WLD) hosted the “Respect Yourself” Mentorship Program participants
at the Law firm of Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, Missouri. WLD
First-Vice Chair, DeMonica D. Gladney, Esq. and WLD Board Member, Pamela
Meanes, Esq., Co-Chaired the function.
DeMonica and Pam are a terrific, productive team. The program included a “Sister to Sister”
group discussion and luncheon with twenty-one (21) high school girls who had an
opportunity to meet and talk one-on-one with their assigned mentors; i.e., women lawyers and judges, who shared their
personal challenges and emphasized the importance of respecting yourself and
others.
The program is intended to be a long
term commitment. To locate the young
participants, WLD partnered with Washington University Law Professor Kimberly
Norwood's pipeline program for disadvantaged youth. This Washington University program began as a
service component of Professor Norwood's Race, Education and the Law
course. The law students and local lawyers teach and mentor students at
Soldan International High School. While
most of the mentoring has occurred at Soldan, a part of Professor Norwood's
program and concept was introduced and expanded to Northwest Law Academy by her
colleague Professor Katherine Goldwasser. Both Soldan and Northwest High Schools
are in socioeconomically depressed communities.
Twenty-one girls from these two schools were invited to meet their NBA
WLD Mentors during the Gertrude Rush meeting in St Louis. The group of 21 girls
participating in the NBA WLD’s mentorship program have been named the “St.
Louis Dream Team” in honor of the first group of mentees who called themselves
the “San Diego Dream Team.”
The NBA WLD initially launched its
national “Respect Yourself” Mentor Program during the NBA 84th Annual
Convention in San Diego, California, in August 2009. For the first program, the
WLD partnered with the “Dream Team,” which is a nonprofit organization
affiliated with the Spring Valley Middle School (SVMS) in Spring Valley,
California. A former Dean of Students at SVMS, who was the only African
American on the staff, formed the organization to address the special needs of
“at risk” African American girls at the school.
The next Respect Yourself Program
will be held during the annual convention in New Orleans, on August 10, 2010
with the assistance of three New Orleans organizations—an NCNW affiliate, Girls
First, and the Louisiana Association of Black Women Attorneys.
Supreme Court Swearing-In Ceremony
WLD’s The
WLD Annual U.S. Supreme Court Swearing-in Ceremony has been held on the first Tuesday
after Memorial Day, for more than 27 years.
This year it will be on June 2, 2010. Elaine Jones, former
President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
will be our Movant. The event is open to
all NBA members who have practiced 5 or more years. After the swearing in,
some of the Supreme Court Justices generally stop by the area assigned to the
NBA and take photos with our group. WLD
also provides a luncheon and formal program for our inductees and their guests.
Many
thanks to Iris McCollum Green and her committee members, Antoinette Barksdale
and Shari Crittenden for their efforts putting together a first class event for
our new inductees.
Remembering Dr. Dorothy Irene Height
l
As late afternoon sunlight streams through stained glass windows
WLD
Chair Gloria Johnson at a Celebration of Life for Dr. Height,
on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at Shiloh Baptist Church, Washington, DC
As
an affiliate of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW), the National
Bar Association Women Lawyers Division (WLD) was deeply saddened by the passing
of our beloved leader, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. She was a great champion of freedom and an extension
of Mary McCloud Bethune whose legacy she carried. Silenced by the chilly fingers of death, is
the melodious voice that made us sing stanza after stanza of “We are Climbing Jacobs Ladder” at every
NCNW event. But her legacy will live on
in the hearts of those touched by the warmth of her commitment and
greatness. Dr. Height embodied
everything that the late Mary McCloud Bethune (founder of NCNW) bequeathed in
her Last Will and Testament, wherein she stated:
Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity,
ambition, responsibility -- these are needed today as never before. We must cultivate them and use them as tools
for our task of completing the establishment of equality for the Negro. We must
sharpen these tools in the struggle that faces us and find new ways of using
them. The Freedom Gates are
half-ajar. We must pry them fully
open. If I have a legacy to leave my
people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. As I face tomorrow, I am content, for I think
I have spent my life well. I pray now
that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of
Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love.
Dr.
Dorothy Height not only shared that vision, she lovingly imparted it to all of
us in WLD who were blessed and honored to serve under her as NCNW
Affiliates. Some of our most exciting
WLD moments and memories in the past few years were spent under her
cultivation, absorbing her philosophy and preparing to carry out her vision; as
she personally called and invited us to participate in projects and tasks that
she assigned to WLD.
Who
among us can forget how we (the WLD Board) huddled around the phone like kids
around the Christmas tree when Dr. Height called to ask if the NBA WLD would
chair the Affiliates Luncheon during the National Council of Negro Women
Convention at Gaylord’s Fort Washington Harbor?
Little did we know, at the time, that would be her LAST Annual NCNW Affiliates’
Luncheon. Thank you WLD. You supported the event with record
attendance. As WLD Chair, I (Gloria
Johnson) presided over the event as MC, former WLD Chair Brenda Girton Mitchell
gave the opening prayer, former WLD Chair Iris McCollum Green presented the
“Occasion,” WLD Board member Antoinette
Barksdale made a presentation regarding our WLD projects (Respect Yourself and
Lawsuits). WLD member Beverly Druitt provided
a flavor of well-received levity as
timekeeper; raising a glowing electrical red light when Affiliate Heads from
all over the country mounted the stage and tried to expand their two-minute time
allotted to present highlights of their
various local programs. Dr. Height found
it effective and amusing. Members of WLD
helped to organize the NCNW Affiliates luncheon program, locate musicians,
select participants, layout and draft the printed program and make the changes
that Dr. Height suggested. Working with
her was a pleasure. Her memory was so sharp and the stories she shared were
invaluable lessons in history.
Dr.
Height was an inspirational, but fun loving leader. I will never forget her
infectious laughter when she saw our “red-light” - the mechanism the WLD
instituted to notify the historically long-winded Affiliate Heads of their
waning time. I will always remember the
appreciative comments and words of praise that both Dr. Barbara Shaw and Dr.
Height showered upon the WLD for having skillfully coordinated that event – Dr.
Height’s very last NCNW Affiliates Luncheon.
Health
Care Law Summit
WLD Sponsored an HIV-AIDs Seminar during the NBA
Healthcare Law Symposium. AIDS is the
leading cause of death for African American women ages 25-34. According to the
US Department of Health and Human Services, African American women are over 21 times as likely to die from
HIV/AIDS as non-Hispanic, white women.
On May 7, 2010 the NBA-WLD sponsored a
seminar entitled, “Intersecting
Epidemics: HIV, Violence Against Women, and Human Trafficking” This seminar was held during the NBA
Healthcare Law Summit in Washington, D.C.
The
seminar was convened by WLD Chair Gloria Johnson, and moderated by Iris
McCollum Green, ABA Special Counsel
for Civil Rights HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee (Past Chair NBA WLD).
Intersecting
Epidemics: HIV, Violence Against Women, and Human Trafficking”panelists were: Anna Martínez who currently serves as Senior Policy Advisor in
the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women; Kenneth D. Johnson,
Section Chief in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS), who discussed preventing and addressing healthcare
disparities; and protecting the civil rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and
Samantha Vardaman, of Shared Hope International who issued copies of
her research that was compiled
into “The National Report on Domestic
Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children,” which was released
in July at a Congressional briefing to highlight the issue of child sex
trafficking in America and admitted into the Congressional Record.
WLD wishes to
thank Denise Hanna and members of the NBA Health Law Section for allowing us to
participate in the summit and discuss this critical subject.
Distinguished Scroll Award
The Women Lawyers Division (WLD) Distinguished Scroll
Award is given to women who have provided exemplary service to the National Bar
Association. During our WLD Annual Breakfast in New
Orleans, on Tuesday August 10, 2010, we will honor several women who have
worked to support and implement WLD programs throughout the years. It is a time set aside to honor and celebrate
our own. Some of the former honorees
have been Gertrude Rush, Charlotte Ray, Ollie Mae Cooper, Honorable Constance
Baker Motley, Hon. Joyce London Alexander, Honorable Alice Bonner, Honorable
Golden Johnson, Arthenia Joyner, Allie B. Latimer, Wilhelmina Jackson Rolark,
Mabel D. Haden, Honorable Arnette Hubbard and Jewel S. Lafontant
During our Annual Breakfast, in August 2009, we honored Attorney
Iris McCollum Green, the former WLD Chair who created the Distinguished Scroll
Award. A graduate of the George
Washington University National Law Center, Attorney Green is a private
practitioner in Washington, D.C . As a
senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States
Department of Justice, Attorney Green engaged in complex litigation of civil rights issues including discrimination
in housing, education, credit and on the basis of sex.
Iris has chaired our WLD Supreme Court Swearing-in
Ceremony for more than twenty (20) years.
She has been instrumental in creating and moderating a number of WLD seminars and symposiums
including the Decriminalization of Female Juveniles a joint project with the
American Bar Association which resulted in a comprehensive collaborative written
report. For the 50th
anniversary of Brown v Board of Education,
she organized a celebration at the Supreme Court with speakers and honorees
such as Congressman John Lewis, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and NCNW
Chair Dr. Dorothy Height. Iris also
brought to the celebration and honored civil rights icon, Attorney Oliver Hill
who litigated the segregated
Farmville Virginia school matter in Davis v. County
School Board of Prince Edward County which later became one of the five
cases decided by the Supreme Court under Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

The 2009 Distinguished Scroll Award was also given to
Honorable Loretta King, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights
Division, United States Department of Justice.
Loretta King has supported the programs and projects of the Women
Lawyers Division for a number of years.
A graduate of Duke University and the American University Washington
College of Law, Ms. King from January 20, 2009 through October 7, 2009, was the
Acting Assistant Attorney General. She
supervised and reviewed the work of Division attorneys and staff in almost
every subject matter under the Division's jurisdiction, including: disability
rights, voting rights, police misconduct, protection of the constitutional
rights of persons in public institutions, and protection against discrimination
in the areas of employment, housing, lending, education, and public
accommodations. Deputy Assistant
Attorney General King has always served as a ready resource to the WLD in our
substantive seminars.
WLD presented the 2009 Distinguished
Scroll Award posthumously to U.S.
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. A former Judge, County Prosecutor, member
of Congress and regular participant in NBA Women Lawyers Division activities.
WLD will never forget her outstanding service, her substantive
contributions to our many CLEs and
seminars and her willingness to assist the WLD whether as a breakfast speaker,
supporter of our causes. Former NBA Vice
President Marlon Primes shared that Stephanie as she was affectionately called “…changed
the legal landscape of Cleveland by hiring 40 African-Americans to serve as
Assistant County Prosecutors. Prior to her arrival, the Cuyahoga County
Prosecutors’ Office rarely employed more than a handful of African-American attorneys.” She was a trailblazer in many areas of the
law. Congresswoman Tubbs-Jones was a great role model and tireless advocate whose
presence will be sorely missed in our legal community. Her legacy will live on
in the WLD. We love you Stephanie.
As the Women Lawyers Division ventures to New Orleans for our 2010
convention, we will remember that Stephanie Tubbs Jones ventured down to
Louisiana and boldly marched with protestors who attempted to cross the bridge
after Hurricane Katrina, to reach dry ground. They were met with guns and
resistance.