BLACK ACTIVIST LAWYER & CLASS OF 1901, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, COLLEGE OF LAW
$2300. USD
In the center of the collage: "COLLEGE OF LAW STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CLASS - 1901."
Included in this class is African American student, S.J. Brown, who became an important and well-known lawyer and activist. Please see the biographical information below. Also included in this class is a woman, M.I. Hamilton. Iowa was a pioneering state for female lawyers. Arabella Mansfield, considered the first female lawyer in the US, was from Iowa.
SIZE. Approximately 24 x 9 1/4 inches.
CONDITION. Collage has light soiling and discoloration. The mount has wear around edges and at corners, including missing pieces.
APPEARANCE. Very good tones. Sharp portraits. Great size.
SAMUEL J. BROWN. "... Black lawyer and activist. Samuel 'Joe' Brown was born in Keosauqua, Iowa, to Elizabeth (Henderson) Brown and Lewis Brown. Lewis, a teamster, traced the family lineage to the original 20 slaves brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Moving north from Missouri, his parents settled in a part of town called 'Hangman's Hollow.' His mother performed housework for white families, including several lawyers. She told Joe she hoped that he would become a lawyer someday. In 1885 the family moved to Ottumwa. By the time he was 14, both of his parents had died, and Joe began working as a bellboy in a hotel to pay his way through high school. He became the first Black to graduate from Ottumwa High School, where he excelled academically. He graduated from the University of Iowa (UI) with a bachelor's degree in 1896. He received a law degree from UI in 1899, a master's degree in 1903, and was the school's first black Phi Beta Kappa scholar. On New Year's eve 1902, he married Sue M. Wilson. In 1917, he served with the U.S. Army 17th Provisional Training Regiment at Fort Des Moines and co-founded the National Bar Association in 1925. Attorney Brown also founded the Crocker Street YMCA, the Des Moines branch of the NAACP (1914), and the Des Moines Interracial Commission. A prominent appeals attorney, he successfully pleaded the first restaurant discrimination case before the Iowa Supreme Court in 1906. Brown also served on the Iowa Republican Central Committee. His community-activist wife, Sue Wilson Brown, was a longtime president of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. Samuel Brown died on July 24, 1950. (African American Registry website)