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- After being denied admission to the Supreme Court in 1876 she singlehandedly lobbied enabling legislation through Congress and in March 1879 became the first woman to avail herself of the new law. She gained national prominence as a lecturer on women’s rights and was active in the affairs of various suffrage organizations.
www.britannica.com/biography/Belva-Ann-LockwoodBelva Ann Lockwood | 1st Woman Lawyer to Practice Law Before ...
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Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (October 24, 1830 – May 19, 1917) was an American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in the women's rights and women's suffrage movements.
Aug 8, 2024 · Belva Lockwood died in 1917—two years before women were granted the right to vote. Who Was the First Woman to Run for President? Victoria Woodhull ran for highest office nearly 50 years before...
Oct 20, 2024 · Belva Ann Lockwood (born Oct. 24, 1830, Royalton, N.Y., U.S.—died May 19, 1917, Washington, D.C.) was an American feminist and lawyer who was the first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- As A Child, She Tried to Perform Miracles.
- She Pursued Higher Education—Even Though It Was "Unladylike."
- She Demanded Equal Pay For Equal work.
- She Tried to Become A Diplomat.
- She Overcame Rejection to Become A Lawyer.
- Congress Passed A Law So She Could Practice Before The Supreme Court.
- She Used A Sexist Law to Her Advantage.
- She Made News by Riding A Tricycle.
- She Ran For President—And Received Several Thousand votes.
Born in 1830 to a farmer and his wife in Royalton, New York, Belva Ann Bennett was the second of five children. Raised in a Christian family, she grew up taking the Bible literally. “I supposed faith only was necessary to the re-enactment of the miracles of Scripture,” she later explained [PDF]. Ten-year-old Belva decided to test this supposition b...
As a child, Belva was educated in the one-room schoolhouses of local “common schools” (public schools [PDF]) in Niagara County, New York. At age 14, she graduated and was immediately offered a summer teaching job by the local school board. (During this period, men usually taught the winter school terms, when boys were freed from agricultural work a...
Upon graduating, Belva was offered the preceptress position at a common school near her hometown of Royalton, a job that allowed her to reassume custody of her daughter. As preceptress, Belva supervised three teachers, handled discipline, and taught classes including rhetoric, botany, and higher math. But though the school board knew Belva was a wi...
Belva wanted to enter the consular service, and during the administration of President Andrew Johnson she applied for a positionas a consular officer in Ghent, Belgium—an unheard-of position for a woman. Belva prepared dutifully for the civil service exam, refreshing her German and studying international law, but the State Department never replied ...
In 1867, 37-year-old Belva met a 65-year-old dentist named Ezekiel Lockwood. Within a year, she had married him and adopted his surname, though she would sign documents and letters “Belva Ann Lockwood” rather than “Mrs. Ezekiel Lockwood,” as was customary. Belva told her new husband that she was bored with teaching and fascinated by the law. She nu...
When she began practicing law, Belva found a small number of supporters among judges and fellow lawyers, but she primarily faced scorn and discrimination. David Kellogg Cartter, chief justice of what was then the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (now the District Court for the District of Columbia), told her frankly, “Madam, if you come in...
In one criminal case, Belva was acting as the defense attorney for a woman who had shot a police officer. The defendant confessed to her actions on the stand, to Belva’s dismay. Now she had to defend someone who had already admitted to the crime, a seemingly impossible task. But Belva knew something important: The woman’s husband had told her to do...
Belva caused quite a stir in the early 1880s when she purchased a tricycle and began riding it around Washington, D.C., covering several miles a day as she conducted her business. (It was, at the time, still unusual for women to ride bicycles or tricycles.) In 1882, The Washington Post declared the sight of “Mrs. Lawyer Lockwood” on her tricycle to...
In 1884, Marietta Stow, a California women’s activist and publisher of the newspaper Woman’s Herald of Industry and Social Science Cooperator, was leader of the new Equal Rights Party. Stow wished to nominate a woman for president, and Belva caught her attention when the lawyer wrote a letter to the Woman’s Herald, stating her belief that women sho...
- Jocelyn Sears
May 1, 2008 · Ten years of teaching in her home state, however, convinced her that she could pull more from life. Astonishingly, although there were no women attorneys in antebellum America, and women were not permitted to vote, she secretly dreamed of a life in law or politics.
Oct 10, 2024 · It’s time Belva Lockwood got her due, especially when Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seem neck-and-neck in the polls. Not only was she the first woman to appear on a presidential ballot she was also, as made evident by everything she accomplished and inspired, truly presidential material in the traditional sense of the office — a leader and ...
Oct 2, 2020 · Belva Ann Bennet Lockwood (October 24, 1830-May 19, 1917) will never achieve the iconic status of Ginsburg — no Hollywood films or t-shirts with her face on them. But Lockwood’s legacy is worth remembering, especially as we mourn the loss of a great Supreme Court Justice who benefited from her trailblazing achievements.
