THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Jewel Lafontant-MANkarious
April 28, 1922 – May 31, 1997
“I just took it for granted I was going to be a lawyer, and I was going to get into that law school. All my life, I’ve had that kind of confidence.”
Attorney. Co-founder of the National Bar Association. First African American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School. First female and African American female deputy solicitor general of the United States. First woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Represented the U.S. as a member of its delegation to the United Nations World Conference for International Women’s Year in Mexico City, 1975. A founding member of the Congress of Racial Equality, an officer of the Chicago chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Photo. President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford Meeting with Members of the United States Delegation to the United Nations World Conference for International Women’s Year in the Oval Office, July 14, 1975. From left: Karen Keesling, Jill Ruckelshaus, Jewel Lafontant, Patricia Lindh, President Ford, Patricia Hutar, and Betty Ford.
More About Jewel:
- Obituary, The New York Times
- Remembering Jewel Lafontant, ’46 University of Chicago Law School, in Honor of Women’s History Month
- The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Jewel Lafontant-MANkarious, February 5, 1993. The HistoryMakers® African American Video Oral History Collection, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.
- Interview with Jewel Lafontant-Mankarious, February 9, 1991
- Archives
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Wikipedia page