Celebrating Trailblazers

This month, PBRC celebrates African American trailblazers in Maryland's legal community: Everett J. Waring and Juanita Jackson Mitchell.

On October 10, 1885, Everett J. Waring became the first African American lawyer admitted to the bar of the Supreme Bench in Baltimore, Maryland. A Howard Law School graduate, Waring was a prominent civic leader in the black community during his twelve-year residence in Baltimore and became the first African American lawyer to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Learn more at The Afro-American.

Juanita Jackson Mitchell, a native of Baltimore, was the first African American woman to practice law in Maryland.  She graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1950 and served as the first national director of the NAACP's youth and college division. Part of a family synonymous with civil rights advocacy in Maryland, worked on a series of legal actions to integrate schools and public accommodations, and ran voter registration drives for two decades. Learn more at The New York Times.