 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Belva Lockwood | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | Belva Ann Bennett (1830-10-24)October 24, 1830 Royalton, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 19, 1917(1917-05-19) (aged 86) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Genesee Wesleyan Seminary Genesee College (BA) Syracuse University (MA) National University (LLB) |
| Occupation(s) | attorney, politician, presidential candidate, activist |
| Political party | National Equal Rights |
| Spouses | |
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (October 24, 1830 – May 19, 1917) was an American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in thewomen's rights andwomen's suffrage movements. She was one of the first women lawyers in the United States. In 1879 she became the first woman to beadmitted to practice law before theU.S. Supreme Court. Lockwood ran for president in1884 and1888 on the ticket of theNational Equal Rights Party and was the first woman to appear on official ballots.[1] WhileVictoria Woodhull is commonly cited as the first woman to run for president, Lockwood was the first one to appear on any ballots, due to Woodhull being too young for the presidency when she ran.
Due to gender restrictions, Lockwood overcame many social and personal obstacles. Early on in life, Lockwood was a teacher and school principal, working to equalize pay for women in education.[2] She supported the movement for world peace, and was a proponent of thetemperance movement.
Belva Ann Bennett was born inRoyalton, New York, daughter of Lewis Johnson Bennett, a farmer, and his wife, Hannah Green.[3] Bennett spent some of her childhood at her aunt's house, which still stands at 5070 Griswold Street. In front of the house is a memorial to her with a plaque that gives a brief biography of her life. By age 14, she was teaching at the local elementary school.[4] In 1848, by age 18, she married Uriah McNall, a farme local to the area.[5]
McNall died oftuberculosis in 1853, three years after their daughter Lura was born.
Lockwood realized she needed a better education to support herself and her daughter. She attendedGenesee Wesleyan Seminary, in Auburn, NY, to prepare for study at college. Her plan, as she explained toLippincott's Monthly Magazine, was not well received by many of her friends and colleagues; most women did not seek higher education, and it was especially unusual for a widow to do so.[6] She persuaded the administration at Genesee College to admit her.
It was during her studies atGenesee College that Lockwood first became attracted to the law, although the school had no law department. Since a local law professor was offering private classes, she became one of his students. It made her want to learn more.[6]
Lockwood graduated with honors in 1857 and soon became the headmistress of Lockport Union School.[3] It was a responsible position, but Lockwood found that whether she was teaching or working as an administrator, she was paid half of what her male counterparts were making.[5]
For the next few years, Lockwood continued to teach and also work as the principal at several local schools for young women. She stayed at Lockport until 1861, then became principal of theGainesville Female Seminary. In 1863, Belva bought The Owego Female Seminary, where she was Principal before leaving to pursue her political career. This building was dismantled and moved, before being renovated in 2019 as the Belva Lockwood Inn in Owego, NY.[7] Lockwood's educational philosophy was gradually changing, particularly after she met women's rights activistSusan B. Anthony. Lockwood agreed with many of Anthony's ideas about society's restrictions on women. Anthony was concerned about the limited education girls received. Courses at most girls' schools chiefly prepared female students for domestic life and possibly for temporary work as teachers.[6] Anthony spoke about how young women ought to be given more options, including preparation for careers in the business world, where the pay was better. Lockwood was encouraged to make changes at her schools. She expanded the curriculum and added courses typical of those which young men took, such aspublic speaking,botany, and gymnastics.[3]
Lockwood gradually determined to study law, instead of continuing teaching, and to leave upstate New York.
In February 1866, Belva and her daughter Lura moved to Washington, D.C., as Belva believed it was the center of power in the United States and would provide good opportunities to advance in the legal profession.[6] She opened a coeducational private school while exploring the study of law. In the mid-1860s,coeducation was unusual; most schools were separated by gender.[3]
In 1868, Belva remarried, this time to a man much older than she. Reverend Ezekiel Lockwood, anAmerican Civil War veteran, was aBaptist minister and practicing dentist. They had a daughter Jessie (who died before her second birthday). Lockwood supported his wife's desire for legal study as well as encouraged her to pursue subjects that interested her.[5] She earned aMaster of Arts fromSyracuse University in 1871.[8] Not only did Rev. Lockwood have progressive ideas about women's roles in society, he helped raise Belva's daughter Lura, from her first marriage. Ezekiel Lockwood died in late April 1877. In July 1879 Lockwood's daughter Lura McNall married DeForest Orme, a pharmacist.
According to Lockwood's later account to theChicago Tribune, about 1870 she applied to theColumbian Law School in the District of Columbia. The trustees refused to admit her, fearing she would distract the male students.[9] She and several other women were finally admitted to the newNational University School of Law (now theGeorge Washington University Law School). Although she completed her coursework in May 1873, the law school refused to grant her a diploma because of her gender.
Without a diploma, Lockwood could not gain admittance to theDistrict of Columbia Bar. After a year, she wrote a letter to the President of the United States,Ulysses S. Grant, appealing to him as presidentex officio of the National University Law School. She asked him for justice, stating she had passed all her courses and deserved to be awarded a diploma.[10] In September 1873, within a week of having sent the letter, Lockwood received herBachelor of Laws. She was 43 years old.
TheDistrict of Columbia Bar admitted her, although several judges told Lockwood they had no confidence in her, a reaction she repeatedly had to overcome.[6] When she tried to gain admission to the Maryland Bar, a judge lectured her and told her that God Himself had determined that women were not equal to men and never could be. When she tried to respond on her own behalf, he said she had no right to speak and had her removed from the courtroom.[11] She also applied to the Court of Claims to represent veterans and their families, but was denied. She applied to the United States Supreme Court bar after having practiced for the minimum three years and secured Albert G. Riddle as sponsor, but her motion was also denied on gender grounds.[12]
Lockwood thus struggled against both social practice and the limited legal standing accorded women. Under EnglishCommon Law, Lockwood was considered a"feme covert" (English version of medieval Anglo-Norman legal term), that is, a married woman. Her status under the law differed from that of an unmarried woman, as a wife was considered strictly subordinate to her husband. Even in 1873, many states refused to allow a married woman to individually own or inherit property, nor did she have the right to make contracts or keep money earned unless her husband gave his permission.
Nonetheless, Lockwood began to build a practice and won some cases. Even her detractors acknowledged her competence. She became known as an advocate for women's issues; she spoke on behalf of an 1872 bill for equal pay for federal government employees. Lockwood also remained active in several women's suffrage organizations, and testified before Congress in support of legislation to give married women and widows more legal protection.[3][5]
Because her practice was limited in the 1870s due to social discrimination, Lockwood drafted an anti-discrimination bill to have the same access to the bar as male colleagues. From 1874 to 1879, she lobbied Congress to pass it.[6] In 1879, Congress finally passed the law, which PresidentRutherford B. Hayes signed into law. It allowed all qualified women attorneys to practice in any federal court. Lockwood was then sworn in as the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar on March 3, 1879.[13]
Late in 1880, Lockwood became the first female lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguingKaiser v. Stickney. In 1906, Lockwood represented the Cherokee Nation inUnited States v. Cherokee Nation.[14][15] She was successful in ensuring the payment of the five million dollar suit, one of the largest made to that date to a Native American tribe for land ceded to the government.[13][16] She also represented hundreds of family members of Civil War veterans in their pension claims.[16] Lockwood later sponsoredSamuel R. Lowery to the Supreme Court bar, who was among the first black lawyers admitted.
Lockwood had a 43-year career as a lawyer.
Belva Lockwood was the first woman (or second, depending on one's opinion, afterVictoria Woodhull) to run for President of the United States. Lockwood ran as the candidate of theNational Equal Rights Party. She ran in thepresidential elections of 1884 and1888. Her running mate wasMarietta Stow in 1884. In 1888 she originally ran withAlfred H. Love, except when he was nominated he wasn't informed of it. When he found out, as the president of theUniversal Peace Union and a lifelong world peace activist, he was horrified to run as vice president to the commander in chief, and dropped out of the race. Lockwood was in a scramble with no vice president, so, in the end, she choseCharles Stuart Weld, son of progressivesTheodore Dwight Weld andAngelina Grimké.
Representing a third party without a broad base of support, Lockwood did not have a serious chance of winning the presidency. A letter she sent toLinda Slaughter provided some insights into her campaign. She wrote: "I intend if possible to get up an Electoral ticket for each State; and thus get up a grand agitation onthe woman question, but am not so anxious about the number of votes polled".[17]Notable American Women stated she received about 4,100 votes.[18] Since women could not vote, and most newspapers were opposed to her candidacy, it was unusual that she received any votes. In an 1884 article, theAtlanta Constitution referred to her as "old lady Lockwood" and warned male readers of the dangers of "petticoat rule".[19]
On January 12, 1885, Lockwood petitioned theUnited States Congress to have her votes counted. She told newspapers and magazines that she had evidence of voter fraud. She asserted that supporters had seen their ballots ripped up and that she had "received one-half the electoral vote ofOregon, and a large vote inPennsylvania, but the votes in the latter state were not counted, simply dumped into the waste basket as false votes".[20]
Lockwood was a well-respected writer, who frequently wrote essays aboutwomen's suffrage and the need for legal equality for women. Among the publications in which she appeared in the 1880s and 1890s wereCosmopolitan (then a journal of current issues), theAmerican Magazine of Civics,Harper's Weekly, andLippincott's. In addition to being active in theNational American Woman Suffrage Association and the Equal Rights Party, Lockwood served as president of theWoman's National Press Association. The organization for women journalists also advocated for equal rights for women. Her other feminist activities included being appointed Attorney General of the American Woman's Republic, an organization founded byMarietta Stowe and dedicated to preparing women for the rights and responsibilities of full citizenship.[16]
Lockwood believed strongly in working for world peace. She co-edited a journal calledThe Peacemaker, and acted as an executive board member of the Universal Peace Union;[16] she was one of its representatives at an exposition held in Paris in 1889. She wrote tracts on international arbitration and was one of the nominating members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.[16] She was also a delegate to anInternational Peace Congress in London in 1890.[21] She continued to speak on behalf of peace and disarmament to the year of her death. She was likely disappointed as the United States prepared to enter the war in Europe.[2]
Belva Lockwood died on May 19, 1917, and was buried inCongressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[1]
Syracuse University awarded Lockwood an honoraryDoctor of Laws in 1908.[8]
The communities ofBelva, West Virginia;Lockwood, Monterey County, California;Lockwood, West Virginia; and the hamlet ofLockwood, New York, were named in her honor. As Lockwood gained renown, mothers named their daughters after her.
At least three figureheads were carved in her likeness: for the shipsMartha,Julia Lawrence, and an unnamed ship that has a full-length masthead. One of the figureheads is displayed in the museum atMystic Seaport inMystic, Connecticut. "With raised chin she gazes straight ahead as if her attention were fixed on the distant horizon".[22]
DuringWorld War II, amerchant marine ship, the Liberty Ship USSBelva Lockwood, was named after her.
TheNational Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., has a portrait of Lockwood byNellie Mathes Horne.[23] It was painted in 1908, when she received an honorary doctorate in law from Syracuse University.[24]
In 1983, Lockwood was inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame inSeneca Falls, New York. The statement about her noted:
Using her knowledge of the law, she worked to secure woman suffrage, property law reforms, equal pay for equal work, and world peace. Thriving on publicity and partisanship and encouraging other women to pursue legal careers, Lockwood helped to open the legal profession to women.[10][25]
In 1986, she was honored by theUnited States Postal Service with a 17¢Great Americans series postage stamp.
In 2016, she was honored by theGreen Bag with abobblehead doll.[26]
Mrs. Belva A.B. Lockwood, the first woman admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, a pioneer in the woman suffrage movement, and the only woman who was ever a candidate for President of the United States, died here today in her eighty-sixth year.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
