Jane M. Bolin was the first Black woman graduate of Yale Law School and the first Black woman in the United States to become a judge. She is pictured here in July 1939, shortly after her appointment by New York City mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, which made news all over the world. Judge Bolin retired in 1979 after 40 years as a judge - but only because she had reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. She died at age 98 in 2007.
I thought I would share Judge Bolin again since the post I wrote last year is floating around Pinterest… ;)
A beautiful, unidentified woman (perhaps holding a newspaper?) circa 1912. Photo: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Fannie Mae Duncan, who owned a cafe and bar called the Cotton Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, sitting on a bed with a cashbox - and a handgun - counting daily receipts in 1955. Ms. Duncan was born Fannie Mae Bragg on July 5, 1918 in Luther, Oklahoma. She ran her Cotton Club from 1948 to 1975 and hosted such icons as Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday and BB King. She died in 2005. Photo © Lew Tilley via Pikes Peak Library District. Thanks Robin Caldwell for the tip!
