Elreta Alexander-Ralston
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Elreta Alexander-Ralston
Elreta Narcissus Alexander-Ralston ( Melton; March 21, 1919 – March 14, 1998) was an American trial attorney and district court judge in North Carolina. She was the first black woman to become a judge via popular election in the U.S., the first black judge elected in North Carolina, and the first black woman to practice law in North Carolina. With an unusual career, she has been noted for her “refusal to allow the circumstances of her birth, the realities of her time, and the limitations imposed by others define her destiny.” However, Alexander-Ralston's legacy has remained largely unrecognized, with her story untold for many years. This supports the notion that black women lawyers have received minimal widespread recognition for their accomplishments and contributions. Early life Elreta Narcissus Melton was born on March 21, 1919, in the small town of Smithfield, North Carolina. Her parents, Joseph C. Melton and Alain A. Reynolds Melton, were both teachers, and Joseph bec ...
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Guilford County, North Carolina
Guilford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 541,299, making it the third-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat and largest community is Greensboro. Since 1938, an additional county court has been located in High Point. The county was formed in 1771. Guilford County is included in the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Greensboro– Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area. History At the time of European encounter, the inhabitants of the area that became Guilford County were a Siouan-speaking people called the Cheraw. Beginning in the 1740s, settlers arrived in the region in search of fertile and affordable land. These first settlers included American Quakers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New England at what is now Greensboro, as well as German Reformed and Lutherans in the east, British Quakers in the south and ...
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Edith Bornn
Edith Bornn (August 30, 1922 – June 4, 2010) was an American attorney from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, who became the first woman with a private law practice on the island. Known as an environmentalist, children's advocate and organizer of the island's chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV), Bornn worked to improve legislation throughout the Caribbean for social and economic development. She served as president of the local chapter of the LWV and was president of the national U.S. organization from 1980 to 1982, as well as serving on numerous commissions for the government of the Virgin Islands. Early life Edith Lucille Bornn was born on August 30, 1922, in Queen's Quarter of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Gladys Isabelle Louise (née Daniel) and David Victor Bornn. After completing her primary education, she enrolled at Charlotte Amalie High School. Upon her graduation, Bornn and her sister Angela moved to the United Stat ...
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Constitutional Amendment
A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions ( codicils), thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document. Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation. Examples of such special procedures include supermajorities in the legislature, or direct approval by the electorate in a referendum, or even a combination of two or more different special procedures. A referendum to amend the constitution may also be triggered in some jurisdictions by popular initiative. Australia and Ireland provide examples of constitutions requiring t ...
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Susie Sharp
Susie Marshall Sharp (July 7, 1907 – March 1, 1996) was an American jurist who served as the first female chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She was not the first woman to head the highest court in a U.S. state, but is believed to be the first woman elected to such a post in a state, like North Carolina, in which the position is elected by the people separately from that of Associate Justice. In 1965, Lorna E. Lockwood became the first female chief justice of a state supreme court, but in Arizona, the Supreme Court justices elect their chief justice. Early years Sharp was born in 1907 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Annie (née Blackwell) and James M. Sharp but spent most of her life in Rockingham County, North Carolina. In 1926 she entered law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the only woman in her class, and graduated Order of the Coif. In 1929, Sharp went into private practice with her father in the firm of Sharp & Sharp. ...
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Henry Frye
Henry E. Frye (born August 1, 1932) is an American judge and politician who served as the first African-American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Early life and education Henry Frye was born August 1, 1932, in Ellerbe, Richmond County, North Carolina. He was 8th of 12 children, born to Walter Atlas and Pearl Motley Frye. His parents were tobacco and cotton farmers. He went to the Ellerbe Colored High School, but by accident he obtained a diploma from Ellerbe High School, the white one. After graduating with honors from North Carolina A&T State University, Frye reached the rank of captain in the United States Air Force, serving in Korea and Japan. Upon returning to North Carolina, Frye was inspired to become a lawyer when he was denied the ability to register to vote by literacy tests. He was the only African American in his law school, but despite this Frye mentions never feeling as if he was treated differently. He graduated from the University of North Carolina ...
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North Carolina Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices has varied. The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies. History The state of North Carolina's first constitution, adopted in 1776, permitted the North Carolina General Assembly to appoint "Judges of the Supreme Courts of Law and Equity", but no appellate court was created for several years. The first one was the Court of Conference, established in 1799, consisting of several North Carolina Superior Court judges sitting ''en banc'' twice each year to review appeals from their courts. In 1805, the General Assembly renamed the institution the "Supreme Court ...
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Kangaroo Court
Kangaroo court is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come to a predetermined conclusion. The term is also used for a court held by a legitimate judicial authority, but which intentionally or structurally disregards the court's legal or ethical obligations (compare show trial). Etymology The term is known to have been used in the United States in 1841: an article in The Times-Picayune, ''The Daily Picayune'', New Orleans quotes the ''Concordia Intelligencer'' reporting several Lynching in the United States, lynchings "upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court", asking "Don't comprehend: What is a Kangaroo court?" The term is not attested to have been used in Australia, native land of the kangaroo, or elsewhere before then. Some sources suggest that the te ...
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Class Discrimination
Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of the lower class. Social class refers to the grouping of individuals in a hierarchy based on wealth, income, education, occupation, and social network. Studies show an intersection between class discrimination and racism and sexism. Legislation shows efforts to reduce such intersections and classism at an individual level. History Class structures existed in a simplified form in pre-agricultural societies, but it has evolved into a more complex and established structure following the establishment of permanent agriculture-based civilizations with a food surplus. Segregation into classes was accomplished through observable traits (such as race or profession) that were accorded varying statuses and privileges. Feudal classification syste ...
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Time (magazine)
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published Weekly newspaper, weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce. A European edition (''Time Europe'', formerly known as ''Time Atlantic'') is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (''Time Asia'') is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. Since 2018, ''Time'' has been owned by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, who acquired it from Meredith Corporation. Benioff currently publishes the magazine through the company Time USA, LLC. History 20th century ''Time'' has been based in New York City since its first issue published on March 3, 1923 ...
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Ruth Whitehead Whaley
Ruth Whitehead Whaley (February 2, 1901 – December 23, 1977) was the third African American woman admitted to practice law in New York in 1925 and the first in North Carolina in 1933. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Fordham University School of Law, where she graduated cum laude in 1924. Early life Whaley was born on February 2, 1901, in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Both of her parents, Charles A. Whitehead and Dora (née Cox) Whitehead, were school teachers. She was a congregant of the AME Zion Church. Ruth C. Whitehead married Herman S. Whaley in 1920 in Goldsboro. Her husband encouraged her to study law despite the difficulties of racism. The couple had two children, Herman W. Whaley and Ruth M. (Whaley) Spearman. Education Whaley attended Livingstone Prep School and Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, a historically Black college (HBCU) founded in 1879. She graduated in June 1919 after earning an A.B. degree. After college, she worked as a te ...
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North Carolina Board Of Law Examiners
The North Carolina Board of Law Examiners is an independent agency charged with admitting attorneys to practice law in the State of North Carolina. The Board is made up of 11 members elected by the Council of the North Carolina State Bar, and the Board employs an Executive Director. The Board is required to hold two bar exams A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ... a year: one in February and another in July. References External links North Carolina Board of Law Examiners {{authority control Bar examinations in the United States Law Examiners ...
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