Mahala Ashley Dickerson served as Alabama’s first African American female lawyer. After initially having trouble finding sponsors for her application, she was admitted to the Alabama Bar in 1948. She soon established practices in Tuskegee and Montgomery. Dickerson moved to Indiana in 1951 and then to Alaska in 1958, becoming the first African American admitted to the Bar in that state as well. She was one of only a few practicing female attorneys in Alaska. Dickerson was widely known throughout her career as an advocate of the poor and for workers’ rights, including equal pay.

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