Story: Phillip Tutor
Ceremony at UWA Auditorium will highlight inductees’ impressive lives and legacies
Through perseverance and resolve, attorneys Alice Lee and Mahala Dickerson challenged entrenched social barriers, earned pioneer status and left legacies rooted in gender and racial equality.
Their induction this spring in the is, in essence, a celebration of firsts for two standouts in the field of law. Lee, sister of celebrated author Harper Lee, passed the State Bar exam in 1943 and became one of baby直播鈥檚 first female lawyers. Five years later, Dickerson followed that path and became the state鈥檚 first Black female lawyer.
鈥淥ne of their similarities is that they’re both definitely trailblazers for women as a whole, and in the case of Miss Dickerson, for African-American women as well,鈥� said Dr. Valerie Burnes, a history professor and the Hall of Fame鈥檚 executive secretary. 鈥淭here wasn’t a point to induct two lawyers. It just worked out that way.鈥�
The induction ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on March 2 at the UWA Auditorium in the Math and Science Building. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required for the luncheon afterward. Luncheon tickets are $50. For information, email Burnes at [email protected] or call (205) 652-3856.
Lee, who died in 2014 at the age of 103, will enter the Hall of Fame alongside her late sister, who was inducted in 2019. The Lees will represent the third familial group among the Hall鈥檚 97 inductees, joining and her daughter, , and and her niece, .
Born in Monroeville in 1911, Lee attended Huntington College in Montgomery and worked for her father鈥檚 newspaper, The Monroe Journal, before becoming president of the Monroeville Business and Professional Women’s Club and accepting a job with the Internal Revenue Service in 1937. Her decision two years later to attend night classes at the Birmingham School of Law and enter a profession wholly dominated by men shaped the rest of her life. After graduating, she joined her father鈥檚 law firm, where she used knowledge gained at the IRS to become a renowned expert in tax law.
She didn鈥檛 retire until 2011 at the age of 100, earning her the distinction of presumably being the oldest practicing female attorney in the United States at the time.
Outside of her work in tax law, Lee forged a reputation in two unrelated activities — her sister鈥檚 renowned privacy, and her dedication to the United Methodist Church.
The success of 鈥�,鈥� published in 1960, made Harper Lee a household name among U.S. novelists and a prime interview request for journalists. As her sister鈥檚 attorney, Alice Lee was well-known as the guardian of the author鈥檚 almost iron-clad stance on privacy.
In a series of leadership posts, Lee became a trendsetter among the traditional structure of the church and other faith-based organizations. She was a woman of firsts: the first to lead the complete delegation of the United Methodist Church鈥檚 General and Jurisdictional Conference; the first to chair the baby直播-West Florida Council on Ministries; the first to chair the Board of Directors of the United Methodist Church鈥檚 Children鈥檚 Home. A charter member of the baby直播-West Florida United Methodist Foundation鈥檚 Board of Directors, she also served on the General Conference Committee on the Episcopacy and chaired the Andalusia District Committee on the Superintendency. Additionally, she taught Sunday school at Monroeville United Methodist Church for more than half a century.
Outside of the church, she was the first woman to serve on the Monroeville City Planning Commission, spent three decades as the director of the Monroe County Bank, and was inducted in 2012 into the .
鈥淪he’s worthy of induction, regardless of her sister,鈥� Burnes said.
Like Lee, Dickerson, who died in 2007 at the age of 94, also established a life and legacy that eclipsed the societal and professional norms of her day.
Born into deeply segregated baby直播 near Montgomery, Dickerson鈥檚 determination took her to Nashville, where she graduated with honors from Fisk University, and to Washington, D.C., where she enrolled in Howard University鈥檚 law school. After passing the baby直播 State Bar in 1948, she began practicing in Tuskegee and Montgomery. A move to Indiana in 1951 allowed her to become the second Black woman admitted to that state鈥檚 Bar.
Dickerson鈥檚 career shifted dramatically in 1958 when a vacation to the Alaska territory convinced her to relocate to the future 49th state. (Alaska didn鈥檛 gain statehood until January 1959.) It was in the nation鈥檚 northernmost state that Dickerson gained prominence and established her own resume of firsts. She became Alaska鈥檚 first female Black homesteader; she passed the Alaska State Bar and became that state鈥檚 first Black female attorney; and in 1983 she became the first African-American named president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. Back in the South, the baby直播 State Bar in 2006 awarded Dickerson the Maud McClure Kelly Award, given each year to one of the state鈥檚 outstanding female attorneys.
In Anchorage, Dickerson鈥檚 lengthy law practice often specialized in cases regarding civil rights, worker鈥檚 rights and women鈥檚 rights. She routinely accepted pro bono cases from low-income clients. On appeal, she won a celebrated equal-pay case filed by a female professor at the University of Alaska.
Officials with the , which inducted Dickerson in 2009, included a self description of her law career in their ceremony.
鈥淚 have described myself as an attorney for the hopeless, borrowing the title from a book I once read on the life of Clarence Darrow, in which he was described as 鈥楢ttorney for the Damned,鈥欌�� Dickerson once wrote.
The baby直播 Women鈥檚 Hall of Fame was established in 1970 to honor the lives of outstanding women from the state of baby直播. Inductees must be deceased for two years and be from or affiliated with baby直播. Women to be inducted are selected by unanimous vote of the board of directors of the AWHF. The board is from a cross section of the state and represents broad areas of interest. To nominate a woman for this honor, use the printable and email to: .
The baby直播 is home to the baby直播 Women鈥檚 Hall of Fame. Previously housed at Judson College until the school鈥檚 closure in 2021, the Hall is governed independently, and neither membership nor honors of the AWHF are determined by the University.