November 24, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before most American women could vote, Belva Lockwood stepped into a legal world that never intended to make room for her. Born on a small farm in 1830, she pushed her way into the courtroom and became the first woman in the United States permitted to argue before the Supreme Court. Her work reshaped American law and challenged long-standing assumptions about who could stand before the bench.
Along the way, she pressed for equal pay, fought for access to education, and even mounted two presidential campaigns—all while raising her daughter alone after tragedy struck her family. Janine Turner, creator of the musical Just Call Me Belva! and founder of Constituting America, shares the story of a woman who refused to accept the limits her country placed on her.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories up next to
a story from Janine Turner. Jeanine is best known for
her role as Maggie O'Connell on the hit television sitcom
Northern Exposure, but she's also a proud single mother and
a lifelong student of history. Today, Janine shares with us
how she found inspiration from Bellevia Lockwood, nineteenth century crusader
(00:34):
for women's rights and the first woman to practice law
in front of the Supreme Court. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm a single mom. I raised my daughter Juliet by myself.
The father wasn't around, he didn't choose to be around.
So I raised her completely by myself, no weekends or
anything of that nature. And I decided to write a
book about single mothers. And when I was writing this book,
I was in a one hundred dollar a month rented
(01:06):
space near my daughter's school, literally their storage room, with
no windows or anything, and it was dark, and it
was before the internet, really, so I researched every book
in the library and found these women and they're all exceptional,
but Balva Lockwood spoke to my heart. What's amazing is
her story is incredibly modern but she did it before
(01:28):
anybody else. She was one of these sort of renegade,
indomitable spirits that just was not going to give up
before the miracle. That's what I had to learn in
my own life in the industry. I moved to New
York City at fifteen to model. I moved to Hollywood
at seventeen. It was a twelve year process to finally
(01:52):
have my big break northern exposure. My big claim to
fame was in nineteen ninety. But all of my life
I've been told you can't accomplish this, you can't possibly
do this, you can't possibly make it. There are a
million women who want to be actresses. What makes you
think you're going to be one? With your long hair
and hot pink nail polish from Texas. I had to
learn to have belief in myself and to say I'm
(02:13):
not going to give up for the miracle and think God,
it finally happened when I had eight dollars left. But
that kernel of survival and mission and purpose Belva had.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Belvia Lockwood was born in Upstate New York in eighteen thirty.
Think about that, our government as we know it now
didn't even start till seventeen eighty nine, which is really
like seventeen ninety, so she's forty years away from the
beginning of our country. And at a young age she
said to her father, I want to have more education.
The opportunity required money. Her father was a farmer, No,
(02:50):
you can't, and Belva said, well, I'll make my own money,
I'll teach school, I'll do whatever I need to do
to find the funding to further my education. Because she
was just one of these insatiably curious women, and I
think curiosity is the basis of genius. She was a
(03:11):
genius from a child. The bent of my mind has
been one of extreme practicality. That knowledge only has been
prized which I could immediately turn into account in everyday life.
And in the pursuit of such knowledge, I have been
undaunted by conventions. Belva was extraordinarily young when she stepped
into the classroom, but she had that gravitas, she had
(03:34):
the confidence, and she had the genuine intellect to be
able to teach these young children. And not only did
she get more years on her primary education, she decided
that then she wanted to go to college. And her
father was like, are you kidding, because women were not
allowed to really work. They're expected to do household chores
(03:57):
and go out and kill the chickens and cook the
meal to marry. Her father was obsessed that she get married,
and he said, you're going to be so smart, no
one's ever going to want to marry you. And she said,
well why not. I have never been able to enter
into the prejudices of centuries past that have had no
foundation reason in nature or in nature's laws. My only
(04:19):
thought was to do those things which, in the nature
of human affairs seemed to be the things to be done,
and to do them in the best and most expeditious manner.
Hence I was not careful as to the nature of
my work, so that it was a means to an end,
and never stopped for a moment to consider whether the
labor was such as women were accustomed to do, but
(04:41):
only whether I had the ability to perform it. But
she did finally get married. She had her first child
around the age of twenty, and her husband died in
a terrible accident in the sawmill where he was working,
and so she was a widow. Think about that, married
it around nineteen, had her first child, now she's a widow.
(05:02):
She's only around twenty one. In those days, if a
woman was a single mother, she had more power over
her children. If she married, the husband had all the
rights to the children. And if he wanted to sell
your child into servitude, he could. He had all the
(05:23):
say in every regard. And so she made the decision
that she wanted to continue her education and raise her
child herself. And her father was just mystified and mortified
and said, are you kidding? No people get remarried. What
are you doing. And she says, well, I don't want
to do that. I don't want to lose the rights
to my child, and I have a vision. And so
(05:46):
she set forth got a higher education with her child
by her side, and then after that she started her
own school. And remember she's a single mom. No one
did this. In my effort to discover new few avenues
of labor, I met with some ludicrous and some serious experiences,
many of which were known only to myself. There was
(06:09):
a vacancy in the Councilship of Ghent. I had the
audacity to make an application for it. I reviewed my German,
read all the authors I could find on international law
in the United States Supreme Court Library, and procuring through
my member of Congress, a copy of the consular Manual,
so that I fully believed that I was competent to
(06:33):
perform the service required of this particular officer, never want
stopping to consider whether the nation to which I should
be accredited would receive a woman. To my disappointment and chagrin,
no notice was ever taken of my application at every juncture.
She took a risk, and I think it's that ability
(06:55):
to go out on a limb and take a risk
where people really find their hauling and their purpose. It's
very difficult to make this type of choice, and especially
when she was raising a child all by herself. But
she took that risk. And then she decided that she
wanted to go to law school. And nobody went to
(07:15):
law school. Very few women ever desired to go to
law school. In my college course, I had studied and
had become deeply interested in the Constitution of the United States.
I had early conceived a passion for reading the biographies
of great men, and had discovered that in almost every
instance law had been the stepping stone to greatness. Born
(07:40):
a woman, I had all the ambitions of a man
forgetting the gulf between the rights and privileges of the sexes.
And she applied to many law schools and had rejection
slip after rejection, slip after rejection, slip. Rejection is a
hard thing to endure. Rejection can be crushing. Right before
(08:02):
Northern Exposure was picked up, I had eight dollars left
to my name, and I didn't think I could handle
any more rejection. I was on my knees because I
thought I was going to get this Tom Selleck pilot
with Stanley Tucci, and I didn't get it, and I
just was on my knees, and I heard on my heart, God,
(08:24):
in you upon my spirit, don't let anybody put out
your flame. Don't let anybody put out your flame. And
the flame is your light and your purpose that I've
given you, and you just have to persevere show up.
I was destitute, I was depressed, but I rolled out
(08:44):
of bed and showed up for what I thought was
going to be one more rejection, and that was for
this role as Maggie O'Connell. And so showing up and
saying God has given me a purpose, and I'm going
to listen to my inner voice and I'm not going
to let anybody put out my flame. That's what Velvi did.
(09:05):
I showed up for that Northern Exposure audition. But that's
what Belvi did. She says, I'm going to show up.
I'm not going to take no for an answer. And
one of the law schools admitted her. I think there
were a few women at the beginning, but most of
them fell away, and there were only about two or
three women at the end that actually graduated.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
She did. And you've been listening to actress Janine Turner
recounting the story of Belvia Lockwood, and we're watching Janine
draw the parallels between Belvi's life and her own as
a single mom. That indeed is what Belvia Lockwood was,
and she decided to keep the child and get an
(09:44):
education and moreover, go to law school. Facing rejection after rejection,
she pushed on and had every right to do so.
When we come back, what happens next in the life
of Belvia Lockwood here on our American story And we
(10:09):
returned to our American stories and with Janine Turner's story
of Belva Lockwood. When we last left off, Janine was
telling us how Belv had decided to not only attend
college at a time when most women didn't, but then
decided to attend law school. Let's continue with the story.
Here again is Janine Turner.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
She walked through law school, but when she graduated, they
wouldn't let her graduate with the men. She had to
graduate on a separate platform. Not only that they didn't
give her diploma, the men felt that their degrees would
not be worthy if a woman could also get the
same degree. She was told I'm sorry, no, you don't
(10:57):
actually get a diploma, and she said, wait, practice law
on the higher courts, most especially if you don't give
me proof of my diploma. And they said, oh, well, sorry, bye,
you're not getting one. Ulysses S. Grant was the president
of this particular college, so Bellevilockwood wrote him a letter
to his excellency US Grant, Sir, you are or are
(11:22):
you not president of the National University Law School. If
you are its president, I desire to say to you
that I have passed through the curriculum of studying this
school and am entitled to and demand my diploma. If
you are not its president, then I ask you to
take your name from its papers and not hold out
(11:42):
to the world what you are not excuse me, in paraphrasing,
you say you're the president of this school. If you are,
then I demand She didn't ask nicely, she said, I
demand my diploma. She received her diploma. She was not
going to take no for an answer, and she just
(12:03):
was really driven. She was a woman, sort of a
renaissance woman. She was a little bit ahead of her time.
I am a woman of faith, and I believe that
God whispers in our ears with our purpose in life,
and her purpose in life was to strike forth. Belva
started her own law firm, and she had a case
(12:24):
that she wanted to argue in front of the Supreme Court,
so she marched over. I guess in those days, you know,
it was very different. And then you know, in the
beginning of the Supreme Court was in the sort of
the basement of the Senate Office. They didn't even have
a building. And she applied to be a member of
the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. She passed
(12:47):
all the requisite tests, she had letters of recommendation, she
had everything that was necessary to be admitted to the
Bar of the United States Supreme Court, and they denied her.
For the first first time in my life, I began
to realize it was a crime to be a woman,
and I at once pleaded guilty to the charge of
(13:07):
the court. Then the Chief Justice announced, this case will
be continued for one week. I retired in good order,
but my counsel, who had only been employed for that occasion,
deserted me and seemed never afterwards to have a backbone
enough to keep up the fight. On the following week, Dooley,
(13:29):
as the hand of the clock approached the hour of twelve,
I again marched into the courtroom, but this time as
solemn as the judges, and accompanied by my husband and
several friends. When the case of lockhood was reached, the
solemn tones of the Chief Justice announced, Miss Lockwood, you
(13:50):
are a married woman. True to Bellevilockwood's nature, she fought this,
and she would just go back and she would meet
with them and say, why why am I not allowed
to be in the bar of the United States Supreme Court.
You can see why this makes such a great theatrical musical.
I collected myself and responded with the wave of a
(14:10):
hand towards my husband. Yes, may I please the court,
but I'm here with the consent of my husband. Doctor
Lockwood at the same time, bowing to the court, my
pleading and distressed look was of no avail. The Solemn
Chief Justice responded, this case will be continued for another week.
(14:33):
The position, which this court assumes is under the laws
and Constitution of the United States, is without power to
grant an application that a woman is without legal capacity
to take the office of attorney. And finally the judges said, well,
you know, well, there's no no precedent. There's never been
a woman on the bar. She says, wait, that's a
(14:55):
bit of a conundrum, because if you're saying I can't
become a member of the bar because a woman has
never been admitted to the bar, but you never admit
a woman to the bar, then how's a woman ever
going to be admitted to the bar? The ordinary female
mind would have ended the matter. But I was at
this time not only thoroughly invested in the law, but
devoted to my clients and determined to support my family
(15:16):
by the profession I had chosen. So she said, fine,
we have three branches in our government, and we have
a United States Constitution. So if you will not allow
me to be admitted to the bar of the United States,
Supreme Court because there's no precedent. Then I will take
this to the legislative branch, who will then pass a bill,
(15:37):
and then they will take it to the executive branch.
She did just that. On the third of March eighteen
seventy nine, on motion of the Honorable A. G. Riddle,
I was admitted to the Bar of the United States
Supreme Court. The passage of that bill virtually opened the
(15:58):
doors of all the federal courts in the country to
the women of the land whenever qualified for such admission.
Thus ended the great struggle for the admission of women
to the bar. Belva A. Lockwood. You know, I think
it's important to kind of sidebar here for a minute,
that this wasn't kind of a situation where there were
(16:20):
no men who believed in women and there were no
men who sided with women.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
There were.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
She had champions, and she had a champion in the Senate,
but then he got sick, and so it took her
five years to get this through the legislative branch. But
she finally did, and she marched right back and said hello.
So she was the first. She was the first woman
to be admitted to the Bar of the United States
(16:46):
Supreme Court. And during this time, the Equal Rights Party
came along and said, we would like for you to
run for president. She said, wait, you want me to
run for president? And they said yes, So she was
on the ballot. People don't know this, They think that
this has only happened in recent decades, but she was
(17:09):
on the ballot as a woman. Women couldn't even vote.
So she was the first woman to actually run for
president in eighteen eighty four, and then she ran again
in eighteen eighty eight. And when you're up against such
incredible odds as she was, but even I was my daughter,
and I would even go listen to lectures and they
would talk about single mothers where they're like ruin of America.
(17:31):
It's more accepted today, but it wasn't even that accepted
on the cusp of nineteen ninety seven. But it definitively
wasn't something that a woman did in eighteen fifty. And
that is a that is a daunting experience. And my
faith was incredibly important to me, and Belva had that
same sort of faith. It's that kernel of strength and power,
(17:55):
I mean, with God her side, walking beside her, with
this sort of embedded sense of higher purpose, by golly,
she was going to accomplish these things. She lost two children,
two husbands, and she still persevered to the end of
her life. She was still taking court cases to the
United States Supreme Court. She was still fighting, you know,
(18:16):
in her late seventies. There's just this choice we have
to make, and I have felt it my own life.
There has to be a choice where I'm going to say,
am I gonna go over the cliff let woe engulf me?
Or am I going to roll out of bed and
show up and live the purpose that God has given me?
(18:40):
With God's purpose, God's power, and God's protection. That's what
Belva Lockwao did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery, and a special thanks to
Janine Turner for sharing this remarkable story. She's the founder
of Constituting America. To find out more about the wonderful
work they do with students across the country, go to
Constituting America dot org. Janine has also written a play
about the life of Belvi. It's called Just Call Me Belvi.
(19:11):
Be sure to check it out. The story of Belvia
Lockwood on our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories up next to
a story from Janine Turner. Jeanine is best known for
her role as Maggie O'Connell on the hit television sitcom
Northern Exposure, but she's also a proud single mother and
a lifelong student of history. Today, Janine shares with us
how she found inspiration from Bellevia Lockwood, nineteenth century crusader
(00:34):
for women's rights and the first woman to practice law
in front of the Supreme Court. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm a single mom. I raised my daughter Juliet by myself.
The father wasn't around, he didn't choose to be around.
So I raised her completely by myself, no weekends or
anything of that nature. And I decided to write a
book about single mothers. And when I was writing this book,
I was in a one hundred dollar a month rented
(01:06):
space near my daughter's school, literally their storage room, with
no windows or anything, and it was dark, and it
was before the internet, really, so I researched every book
in the library and found these women and they're all exceptional,
but Balva Lockwood spoke to my heart. What's amazing is
her story is incredibly modern but she did it before
(01:28):
anybody else. She was one of these sort of renegade,
indomitable spirits that just was not going to give up
before the miracle. That's what I had to learn in
my own life in the industry. I moved to New
York City at fifteen to model. I moved to Hollywood
at seventeen. It was a twelve year process to finally
(01:52):
have my big break northern exposure. My big claim to
fame was in nineteen ninety. But all of my life
I've been told you can't accomplish this, you can't possibly
do this, you can't possibly make it. There are a
million women who want to be actresses. What makes you
think you're going to be one? With your long hair
and hot pink nail polish from Texas. I had to
learn to have belief in myself and to say I'm
(02:13):
not going to give up for the miracle and think God,
it finally happened when I had eight dollars left. But
that kernel of survival and mission and purpose Belva had.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Belvia Lockwood was born in Upstate New York in eighteen thirty.
Think about that, our government as we know it now
didn't even start till seventeen eighty nine, which is really
like seventeen ninety, so she's forty years away from the
beginning of our country. And at a young age she
said to her father, I want to have more education.
The opportunity required money. Her father was a farmer, No,
(02:50):
you can't, and Belva said, well, I'll make my own money,
I'll teach school, I'll do whatever I need to do
to find the funding to further my education. Because she
was just one of these insatiably curious women, and I
think curiosity is the basis of genius. She was a
(03:11):
genius from a child. The bent of my mind has
been one of extreme practicality. That knowledge only has been
prized which I could immediately turn into account in everyday life.
And in the pursuit of such knowledge, I have been
undaunted by conventions. Belva was extraordinarily young when she stepped
into the classroom, but she had that gravitas, she had
(03:34):
the confidence, and she had the genuine intellect to be
able to teach these young children. And not only did
she get more years on her primary education, she decided
that then she wanted to go to college. And her
father was like, are you kidding, because women were not
allowed to really work. They're expected to do household chores
(03:57):
and go out and kill the chickens and cook the
meal to marry. Her father was obsessed that she get married,
and he said, you're going to be so smart, no
one's ever going to want to marry you. And she said,
well why not. I have never been able to enter
into the prejudices of centuries past that have had no
foundation reason in nature or in nature's laws. My only
(04:19):
thought was to do those things which, in the nature
of human affairs seemed to be the things to be done,
and to do them in the best and most expeditious manner.
Hence I was not careful as to the nature of
my work, so that it was a means to an end,
and never stopped for a moment to consider whether the
labor was such as women were accustomed to do, but
(04:41):
only whether I had the ability to perform it. But
she did finally get married. She had her first child
around the age of twenty, and her husband died in
a terrible accident in the sawmill where he was working,
and so she was a widow. Think about that, married
it around nineteen, had her first child, now she's a widow.
(05:02):
She's only around twenty one. In those days, if a
woman was a single mother, she had more power over
her children. If she married, the husband had all the
rights to the children. And if he wanted to sell
your child into servitude, he could. He had all the
(05:23):
say in every regard. And so she made the decision
that she wanted to continue her education and raise her
child herself. And her father was just mystified and mortified
and said, are you kidding? No people get remarried. What
are you doing. And she says, well, I don't want
to do that. I don't want to lose the rights
to my child, and I have a vision. And so
(05:46):
she set forth got a higher education with her child
by her side, and then after that she started her
own school. And remember she's a single mom. No one
did this. In my effort to discover new few avenues
of labor, I met with some ludicrous and some serious experiences,
many of which were known only to myself. There was
(06:09):
a vacancy in the Councilship of Ghent. I had the
audacity to make an application for it. I reviewed my German,
read all the authors I could find on international law
in the United States Supreme Court Library, and procuring through
my member of Congress, a copy of the consular Manual,
so that I fully believed that I was competent to
(06:33):
perform the service required of this particular officer, never want
stopping to consider whether the nation to which I should
be accredited would receive a woman. To my disappointment and chagrin,
no notice was ever taken of my application at every juncture.
She took a risk, and I think it's that ability
(06:55):
to go out on a limb and take a risk
where people really find their hauling and their purpose. It's
very difficult to make this type of choice, and especially
when she was raising a child all by herself. But
she took that risk. And then she decided that she
wanted to go to law school. And nobody went to
(07:15):
law school. Very few women ever desired to go to
law school. In my college course, I had studied and
had become deeply interested in the Constitution of the United States.
I had early conceived a passion for reading the biographies
of great men, and had discovered that in almost every
instance law had been the stepping stone to greatness. Born
(07:40):
a woman, I had all the ambitions of a man
forgetting the gulf between the rights and privileges of the sexes.
And she applied to many law schools and had rejection
slip after rejection, slip after rejection, slip. Rejection is a
hard thing to endure. Rejection can be crushing. Right before
(08:02):
Northern Exposure was picked up, I had eight dollars left
to my name, and I didn't think I could handle
any more rejection. I was on my knees because I
thought I was going to get this Tom Selleck pilot
with Stanley Tucci, and I didn't get it, and I
just was on my knees, and I heard on my heart, God,
(08:24):
in you upon my spirit, don't let anybody put out
your flame. Don't let anybody put out your flame. And
the flame is your light and your purpose that I've
given you, and you just have to persevere show up.
I was destitute, I was depressed, but I rolled out
(08:44):
of bed and showed up for what I thought was
going to be one more rejection, and that was for
this role as Maggie O'Connell. And so showing up and
saying God has given me a purpose, and I'm going
to listen to my inner voice and I'm not going
to let anybody put out my flame. That's what Velvi did.
(09:05):
I showed up for that Northern Exposure audition. But that's
what Belvi did. She says, I'm going to show up.
I'm not going to take no for an answer. And
one of the law schools admitted her. I think there
were a few women at the beginning, but most of
them fell away, and there were only about two or
three women at the end that actually graduated.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
She did. And you've been listening to actress Janine Turner
recounting the story of Belvia Lockwood, and we're watching Janine
draw the parallels between Belvi's life and her own as
a single mom. That indeed is what Belvia Lockwood was,
and she decided to keep the child and get an
(09:44):
education and moreover, go to law school. Facing rejection after rejection,
she pushed on and had every right to do so.
When we come back, what happens next in the life
of Belvia Lockwood here on our American story And we
(10:09):
returned to our American stories and with Janine Turner's story
of Belva Lockwood. When we last left off, Janine was
telling us how Belv had decided to not only attend
college at a time when most women didn't, but then
decided to attend law school. Let's continue with the story.
Here again is Janine Turner.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
She walked through law school, but when she graduated, they
wouldn't let her graduate with the men. She had to
graduate on a separate platform. Not only that they didn't
give her diploma, the men felt that their degrees would
not be worthy if a woman could also get the
same degree. She was told I'm sorry, no, you don't
(10:57):
actually get a diploma, and she said, wait, practice law
on the higher courts, most especially if you don't give
me proof of my diploma. And they said, oh, well, sorry, bye,
you're not getting one. Ulysses S. Grant was the president
of this particular college, so Bellevilockwood wrote him a letter
to his excellency US Grant, Sir, you are or are
(11:22):
you not president of the National University Law School. If
you are its president, I desire to say to you
that I have passed through the curriculum of studying this
school and am entitled to and demand my diploma. If
you are not its president, then I ask you to
take your name from its papers and not hold out
(11:42):
to the world what you are not excuse me, in paraphrasing,
you say you're the president of this school. If you are,
then I demand She didn't ask nicely, she said, I
demand my diploma. She received her diploma. She was not
going to take no for an answer, and she just
(12:03):
was really driven. She was a woman, sort of a
renaissance woman. She was a little bit ahead of her time.
I am a woman of faith, and I believe that
God whispers in our ears with our purpose in life,
and her purpose in life was to strike forth. Belva
started her own law firm, and she had a case
(12:24):
that she wanted to argue in front of the Supreme Court,
so she marched over. I guess in those days, you know,
it was very different. And then you know, in the
beginning of the Supreme Court was in the sort of
the basement of the Senate Office. They didn't even have
a building. And she applied to be a member of
the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. She passed
(12:47):
all the requisite tests, she had letters of recommendation, she
had everything that was necessary to be admitted to the
Bar of the United States Supreme Court, and they denied her.
For the first first time in my life, I began
to realize it was a crime to be a woman,
and I at once pleaded guilty to the charge of
(13:07):
the court. Then the Chief Justice announced, this case will
be continued for one week. I retired in good order,
but my counsel, who had only been employed for that occasion,
deserted me and seemed never afterwards to have a backbone
enough to keep up the fight. On the following week, Dooley,
(13:29):
as the hand of the clock approached the hour of twelve,
I again marched into the courtroom, but this time as
solemn as the judges, and accompanied by my husband and
several friends. When the case of lockhood was reached, the
solemn tones of the Chief Justice announced, Miss Lockwood, you
(13:50):
are a married woman. True to Bellevilockwood's nature, she fought this,
and she would just go back and she would meet
with them and say, why why am I not allowed
to be in the bar of the United States Supreme Court.
You can see why this makes such a great theatrical musical.
I collected myself and responded with the wave of a
(14:10):
hand towards my husband. Yes, may I please the court,
but I'm here with the consent of my husband. Doctor
Lockwood at the same time, bowing to the court, my
pleading and distressed look was of no avail. The Solemn
Chief Justice responded, this case will be continued for another week.
(14:33):
The position, which this court assumes is under the laws
and Constitution of the United States, is without power to
grant an application that a woman is without legal capacity
to take the office of attorney. And finally the judges said, well,
you know, well, there's no no precedent. There's never been
a woman on the bar. She says, wait, that's a
(14:55):
bit of a conundrum, because if you're saying I can't
become a member of the bar because a woman has
never been admitted to the bar, but you never admit
a woman to the bar, then how's a woman ever
going to be admitted to the bar? The ordinary female
mind would have ended the matter. But I was at
this time not only thoroughly invested in the law, but
devoted to my clients and determined to support my family
(15:16):
by the profession I had chosen. So she said, fine,
we have three branches in our government, and we have
a United States Constitution. So if you will not allow
me to be admitted to the bar of the United States,
Supreme Court because there's no precedent. Then I will take
this to the legislative branch, who will then pass a bill,
(15:37):
and then they will take it to the executive branch.
She did just that. On the third of March eighteen
seventy nine, on motion of the Honorable A. G. Riddle,
I was admitted to the Bar of the United States
Supreme Court. The passage of that bill virtually opened the
(15:58):
doors of all the federal courts in the country to
the women of the land whenever qualified for such admission.
Thus ended the great struggle for the admission of women
to the bar. Belva A. Lockwood. You know, I think
it's important to kind of sidebar here for a minute,
that this wasn't kind of a situation where there were
(16:20):
no men who believed in women and there were no
men who sided with women.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
There were.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
She had champions, and she had a champion in the Senate,
but then he got sick, and so it took her
five years to get this through the legislative branch. But
she finally did, and she marched right back and said hello.
So she was the first. She was the first woman
to be admitted to the Bar of the United States
(16:46):
Supreme Court. And during this time, the Equal Rights Party
came along and said, we would like for you to
run for president. She said, wait, you want me to
run for president? And they said yes, So she was
on the ballot. People don't know this, They think that
this has only happened in recent decades, but she was
(17:09):
on the ballot as a woman. Women couldn't even vote.
So she was the first woman to actually run for
president in eighteen eighty four, and then she ran again
in eighteen eighty eight. And when you're up against such
incredible odds as she was, but even I was my daughter,
and I would even go listen to lectures and they
would talk about single mothers where they're like ruin of America.
(17:31):
It's more accepted today, but it wasn't even that accepted
on the cusp of nineteen ninety seven. But it definitively
wasn't something that a woman did in eighteen fifty. And
that is a that is a daunting experience. And my
faith was incredibly important to me, and Belva had that
same sort of faith. It's that kernel of strength and power,
(17:55):
I mean, with God her side, walking beside her, with
this sort of embedded sense of higher purpose, by golly,
she was going to accomplish these things. She lost two children,
two husbands, and she still persevered to the end of
her life. She was still taking court cases to the
United States Supreme Court. She was still fighting, you know,
(18:16):
in her late seventies. There's just this choice we have
to make, and I have felt it my own life.
There has to be a choice where I'm going to say,
am I gonna go over the cliff let woe engulf me?
Or am I going to roll out of bed and
show up and live the purpose that God has given me?
(18:40):
With God's purpose, God's power, and God's protection. That's what
Belva Lockwao did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery, and a special thanks to
Janine Turner for sharing this remarkable story. She's the founder
of Constituting America. To find out more about the wonderful
work they do with students across the country, go to
Constituting America dot org. Janine has also written a play
about the life of Belvi. It's called Just Call Me Belvi.
(19:11):
Be sure to check it out. The story of Belvia
Lockwood on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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