Lawyer

Lawyer Virgil Roberts was born on January 4, 1947 in Ventura, California. He attended Ventura College in Ventura, California and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. degree in 1968. After doing graduate studies for a year, Roberts earned his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1972.

In 1968, Roberts helped found the first African American studies program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and established the Center for Afro-American Studies, later known as the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. In 1972, Roberts joined the Los Angeles law firm of Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernhard and Sears as an associate and civil litigator. There, he handled business litigation and did pro-bono work for civil rights organizations. In 1976, Roberts left the firm to found his own practice, known as, Manning, Reynolds & Roberts, where his clients included Associated Booking Corporation, Norman Whitfield and the Whispers. He also continued his pro-bono work and represented the NAACP from 1978 to 1981 in the Los Angeles school desegregation case, Crawford v. Board of Education. Years later in 1981, Roberts served as executive vice president and general counsel of SOLAR Records, the company known as “the Motown of the 80’s.” Roberts was named president and general counsel of SOLAR Records in 1990, where he was instrumental in creating Death Row Records. In 1996, Roberts founded the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts along with Leroy Bobbitt, where their clients have included SOLAR Records, Gospocentric Records, Slip ‘n’ Slide Records, Blackground Records, Usher, Chaka Khan, NATPE International, Paramount Pictures, Black Entertainment Television and Barbara Taylor Bradford.

Roberts was a founder and serves as a director of Community Build, he also serves as chairman of Broadway Financial Corporation and Broadway Federal Bank FSB. In 2005, he founded and served as co-chair of Alliance for College Ready Public Schools; and, the following year, Roberts joined the Claremont Graduate University Board of Trustees. He joined the board of directors of The James Irvine Foundation. He founded and serves as chair of the African-American Board Leadership Institute and as director of Great Public Schools NOW. In 2018 a middle school, the Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy, was named in his honor.

Roberts and his wife, Brenda, have two adult married children, Gisele Simone (Roberts) Wilson and Hayley Tasha Roberts.

Virgil Roberts was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 6, 2019.

Lawyer Gail Berry West was born on September 29, 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Johnnie Mae Newton and Theodore Berry. She received her B.A. degree in history from Fisk University in 1964, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, her M.A. degree in history from the University of Cincinnati in 1965, and her J.D. degree from Howard University School of Law in 1968.

In 1969, West began her career in the New York office of the general counsel for the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM). Upon moving to Washington, D.C., she transferred to the data processing division and also served as an attorney in litigation analysis. In this position, she assisted with outside counsel in the preparation of litigation between IBM and the federal government.

In 1977, West joined the Carter administration as special assistant to Patricia Roberts Harris, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She went on to work for Sarah Weddington, assistant to President Jimmy Carter, in the White House and served on the White House Task Force on Sex Discrimination. In 1980, West became deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of the Air Force in Reserve Affairs and Installations. She was responsible for policy, program guidance and executive direction for all matters pertaining to compliance with equal employment laws and regulations. She then worked as an attorney and consultant for several companies seeking contracts with the federal government.

In 1983, she became executive director of government affairs for Bell Communications (Bellcore), where she served for twelve years until 1995, when she became director of government relations for Armstrong World Industries (AWI). From 2003 to 2007, West served as a consultant for AWI until her retirement.

West has served on the board of trustees for the Corcoran Gallery of Art, WETA, Meridian International Center and the Fisher House Foundation. She was also a board member of Arena Stage, the Decatur House Council, the D.C. Commission on Fine Arts, and the National Museum of American History. She served as the vice regent for the District of Columbia to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. She also serves on the board of the White House Historical Association, the Hillwood Estate Museum & Gardens, and is a member of the dean’s council for the Washington National Cathedral.

West is the recipient of numerous awards including; IBM Regional Manager’s Merit Award for Outstanding Contribution, Air Force Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, Bellcore President’s Recognition Award and the Armstrong General Manager’s Award for Team Excellence.

West and her husband, the late Togo D. West, Jr., have two daughters, Tiffany West Smink and Hilary Carter West.

Gail Berry West was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 17, 2019.

Lawyer Margaret Burnham was born on December 28, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama to Louis and Dorothy Burnham. She received her B.A. degree in history from Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, and her LL.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1969.

Burnham served as a staff attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., in New York City from 1969 to 1972. Burnham then joined the Roxbury Defenders in Boston and worked there from 1972 to 1974. In 1973, Burnham was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts. In 1974, Burnham co-founded the Boston law firm of Burnham, Stern & Shapiro. In 1977, she was appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis as the first African American female to serve in the Massachusetts judiciary, when she joined the Boston Municipal Court bench as an associate justice where she served until 1983. She was also named executive director at National Conference of Black Lawyers in New York City. In 1985, Burnham was selected as the Bunting Institute Fellow at Radcliffe College. In 1987, Burnham established the Law Office of Margaret Burnham in Boston; and, in 1989, she joined Burnham & Hines as a founding partner while serving as a lecturer for the department of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1993, South African president Nelson Mandela appointed Burnham to serve on an international human rights commission to investigate alleged human rights violations within the African National Congress. Burnham joined the Northeastern University School of Law faculty in 2002, and served as associate professor. She was promoted to professor in 2006.

In 1992, she was named chair of the board of directors for National Center of Afro-American Artists. In 1993, Burnham was elected and served as member of the board of trustees for Old South Meeting House. Burnham also served as a member of the The Algebra Project and for the National Advisory Board for the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.

In 1995, she received the Robinson Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Profession by the Women’s Bar Association in Boston, Massachusetts. Burnham was inducted into the YWCA Boston Academy of Women Achievers, in 1996. Burnham received an honorary doctorate degree of laws from Western New England College School of Law in 2000, and was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of education degree from Wheelock College in Boston, in 2002. Burnham received the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association Trailblazer Award in 2008. In 2008, Burnham was awarded a Newhouse Center for the Humanities Fellowship at Wellesley College. In 2009, Burnham was awarded the International Criminal Justice Research Fellowship at Grotius Institute, University of Leiden at The Hague, Netherlands. She was also the recipient of Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly Top Women of the Law Award, in 2011. In 2016, she was selected for the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program. She also received an honorary doctorate degree from Lesley University.

Margaret Burnham was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 16, 2018.

Judge Roderick Ireland was born on December 3, 1944 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Helen Garner Ireland and George Lovelace Ireland. Ireland received his B.A. degree in 1966 from Lincoln University, his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 1969, his L.L.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 1975, and his Ph.D. degree in Law, Policy and Society from Northeastern University in 1998.

Ireland began his career as a staff attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services in New York City in 1969. In 1970, he worked as a staff attorney at the Harvard Center for Law and Education. Ireland cofounded the Roxbury Defenders Committee with Wallace Sherwood in 1971. In 1973, he worked as a hearing officer at the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission. Ireland joined the offices of Burnham, Stern and Shapiro in Boston in 1975, before being named assistant secretary and chief legal counsel at Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Additionally, he served as chair of the Massachusetts Board of Appeal on Motor Vehicle Liability, Policies, and Bonds. Nominated to the Boston Juvenile Court by Governor Michael Dukakis in 1977, Ireland began teaching criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University in 1978. In 1990, he was nominated to the Massachusetts Court of Appeals. In 1997, Ireland was the first African American appointed to serve on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. From 2001 to 2016, Ireland taught in the Appellate Judges Seminar at New York University Law School and worked as an advisor and teacher for the Supreme Judicial Court’s Judicial Youth Corps. In 2003, he was among four of seven justices who ruled in favor of legalized same sex marriage in Massachusetts. Nominated by Governor Deval Patrick, Ireland became the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 2010.

Ireland authored, Massachusetts Juvenile Law, (1993, 2007) a two volume treatise published by West Publishing. Ireland served on the board of trustees for Suffolk University in 2013.

In 1979, Ireland was one of three black men selected for ‘Ten Outstanding Young Men for 1979’ by the U.S. Junior Chamber. In 1982, Ireland was awarded the Boston Covenant Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to promote racial justice. Ireland was awarded the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Award for Judicial Service by the Boston Bar Association in 1990. He was also awarded the St. Thomas More Award by Boston College Law School. In 2001, the Massachusetts Bar Association and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly newspaper awarded Ireland the Judicial Excellence Award.

He received honorary doctorate of law degrees from several universities and received the President’s Award at the 2016 Massachusetts Judges Conference. In 2015, Ireland’s childhood street was renamed in his honor and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. In 2017, Hampden County Hall of Justice in Springfield, Massachusetts was renamed Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in his honor.

Ireland and his wife Alice, have three children: Elizabeth, Michael and Melanee.

Roderick Ireland was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 12, 2018.

Lawyer Zulima Farber was born in 1944 in El Caney, Cuba to Lourdes Portes Feraud and Castulo Feraud. She left Cuba along with her oldest brother and sister and moved to St. Mary, Jamaica to attend boarding school in 1958. She returned to Cuba in 1960 and continued her education until 1961, when she and her siblings then moved to West New York, New Jersey where she graduated from Memorial High School. Farber received her B.A. degree in Spanish in 1968, and M.A. degree in Spanish literature in 1970, both from Montclair State College. Farber then attended Rutgers School of Law-Newark where she earned her J.D. degree in 1974.

In 1974, Farber worked as a City of Newark Department of Health and Welfare legal specialist. In 1975, she was named Bergen County assistant prosecutor and served as grand jury section chief in 1976 and trial section assistant chief in 1977. In 1978, Farber was appointed assistant counsel to Governor Brendan Byrne. In 1981, she joined the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler LLP; and in 1986 became the first female to be made partner. In 1992, Farber served as the State of New Jersey public advocate/public defender. In 1994, she returned to Lowenstein Sandler, serving on the firm’s executive committee in 1995. Farber was appointed state attorney general in 2006 and became the first African American female and Hispanic in this role as well as the first Hispanic female to serve as acting governor of New Jersey. In 2007, Farber returned to Lowenstein Sandler as a partner, and began working more closely with their public relations firm, Issues Management. She retired from the law firm and the practice of law in 2011.

In 1983, Farber served as Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey board member and president. In 1992, she was the New Jersey State Bar Association’s nominating committee vice chair. She also served on boards of the New Jersey Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1987 to 2006; the New Jersey Center for Civic Education in 1990; and Institute for Social Justice in 1998. Named an American Bar Foundation fellow, Farber joined the New Jersey Lawyer editorial board in 1995. In 1996, she served as a member of the Electoral College from New Jersey, and as Leadership Newark trustee member, and American Law Institute member in 1997. In 2001, Farber served on the New Jersey Bipartisan Congressional Redistricting Commission, and was named member of the new executive committee for the Latinas United for Political Empowerment PAC.

She has been honored numerous times including receiving the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey’s Women of Achievement Award, Congresswoman Mary T. Norton Memorial Award from United Way of Hudson County and the YWCA of Central Jersey’s Height of Achievement Award in 1993. In 1996, Farber received the Mary Philbrook Public Interest Award from Rutgers Law School-Camden’s Women’s Law Caucus, and in 1997, the Outstanding Achievement Award from National Association of Cuban-American Women and the Equal Justice Medal from Legal Services of New Jersey. In 1999, Farber received the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey’s Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award. In 2006, she received the Montclair State University honorary doctorate of laws. She was the recipient of the New Jersey State Bar Association Mel Narol Award, Hispanic Bar Association Public Service Award and Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Foundation Award of Excellence.

Zulima Farber was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on October 23, 2018.

Political official and lawyer Marcia L. Fudge was born on October 29, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio to Marian Saffold. She graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1971, and went on to obtain her B.S. degree in business administration from The Ohio State University in Columbus in 1975. Fudge later attended and received her J.D. degree from Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1980.

After completing her J.D. degree, Fudge worked as a law clerk. She then worked as director of the personal property tax department in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Later, she served as the deputy county auditor for the county’s estate tax department and the director of the Cuyahoga County Budget Commission. In 1988, Fudge worked as the director of budget and finance for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office. Then, in 1999, Fudge entered politics as the chief of staff for U.S. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, where she worked for a year before running and winning the race for mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Following the untimely death of Jones in 2008, Fudge became the U.S. Representative for the 11th District of Ohio. She won re-election for her seat in the subsequent elections of 2010 and 2012. In 2013, Fudge became chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 113th Congress and founded the Rock and Roll Caucus. In 2016, she was selected to fill the position as chair of the Democratic National Convention after the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Fudge served on the board of Cleveland Public Library for over twenty years and was elected vice president in 1986. In 1988, she was elected as the national treasurer of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Four years later, Fudge became the first vice president of the sorority and completed her national tenure as national president in 1996. She joined the boards of Alcoa Aluminum and Judge Lloyd O. Brown Scholarship Committee. In 2003, Fudge was named a hall of fame alumna at the eighteenth annual Shaker Heights Alumni Association hall of fame ceremony. Fudge was featured in Who’s Who in Black Cleveland in 2004 and 2005. The same year, she received the Trailblazer of the Year Award from the Norman S. Minor Bar Association. In 2007, Fudge received the Patricia Roberts Harris Medallion Award for excellence in government service and was named Municipal Leader of the Year by the Northeast Ohio Municipal Leader magazine.

Marcia L. Fudge was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 24, 2018.

Lawyer Carolyn House Stewart was born on November 11, 1952 in Richland County, South Carolina. She earned her B.A. degree in history and social science education from the University of South Florida in 1974 and her J.D. degree from the University of South Carolina Law Center in 1977.

Stewart was hired as assistant litigation counsel for the Jim Walter Corporation in 1977. Working in Tampa, Florida, she was the first African American woman lawyer hired by the company. Stewart left the Jim Walter Corporation in 1980 to work as assistant state attorney in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, which served Hillsborough County, Florida. She was the first African American woman hired as assistant state attorney in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. Four years later, she was named assistant county attorney for the Hillsborough Office of the County Attorney in 1985. She held this position for two years before moving into private practice at Tampa’s Butler and Burnette law firm. In 1989, Stewart returned to the corporate sector as staff counsel for the Travelers Insurance Company. After five years with the company, Stewart returned to private practice in 1994, joining the Law Firm of Macfarlane Ferguson and McMullen. She specialized in civil litigation, casualty, and labor law cases, and was elevated as the first African American partner in 1997.

Initiated as an undergraduate in 1972, Stewart joined the Gamma Theta Omega Graduate Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. after beginning her legal career. In 1998, she was appointed international program committee chair. In 2002, she was elected international secretary, and in 2006, she was elected vice president. Stewart became the twenty-eighth international president in 2010. She adopted Global Leadership through Timeless Service as the theme of her administration and developed Emerging Young Leaders as her signature program. She completed her term as international president in 2014.

Stewart served on the Florida Board of Bar Examiners from 2006 to 2011 and the Heifer International board of directors from 2014 to 2017. She was also a founding board member of the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs. Stewart has been honored by numerous organizations including the Florida Commission on the Status of Women and the National Bar Association. Stewart is a legacy life member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).

Stewart and her husband, Delano Stewart, have one daughter together, Delsha. Stewart also has five stepdaughters.

Carolyn House Stewart was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 10, 2018.

Lawyer Delano Stewart was born on November 9, 1935 in Tampa, Florida to Beatrice Hill Stewart and Garland V. Stewart. He went on to earn his B.A degree in political science at his father’s alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, he attended Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., during which time he attended the March on Washington in 1963. He also served in the U.S. Air Force. Upon graduating in 1964, Stewart returned to Tampa, Florida, where he became the first African American board member for the Hillsborough County Young Democrats.

After graduating from Howard’s Law School, Stewart returned to Tampa to enter private practice with Francisco Rodriguez and S.J. Kenneth Rogers. Stewart also became the first African American Assistant Public Defender for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County. Stewart expanded his law practice to add fellow Howard Law graduate George Edgecomb and Arthenia Joyner, the first African American female to practice law in Hillsborough County. Edgecomb became Tampa’s first African American assistant state attorney and county court judge. The local George Edgecomb Bar Association bears his name and awards the Delano Stewart Diversity Award annually. In 1970, Stewart became the first attorney to head an integrated law firm in Florida. His civil rights and activist clients included Otha Favors (Askia Muhammad Aquil) and Connie Tucker. In 1967, Stewart played a critical role when the riots in Tampa ensued after the shooting of teenager Martin Chambers by a white police officer. After fifty years of practicing law, Stewart retired in 2015.

Stewart had a stellar career as a criminal and civil trial lawyer. He served as the first president of the George Edgecomb Bar Association from 1982 to 1983. Stewart was elected as the first African American on the Hillsborough County Bar Association Board of Directors.  He continued his community and political activism by running for the Florida House of Representatives in 1966 and Tampa City Council in 1970. Undeterred by these unsuccessful races, he continued to spend his Saturdays registering African American voters. Stewart is a Founder of the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (1980), and the first African American member of the Rough Riders civic organization, of which he is a life member. He is also a member of the National Bar Association’s Hall of Fame.

Stewart is married to Carolyn House Stewart, who was the first African American female assistant state’s attorney in Hillsborough County. He has six daughters, eight grandchildren, and one great grandson.

Delano Stewart was interviewed The HistoryMakers on September 10, 2018.

Journalist and lawyer Jeraldine Williams was born on January 14, 1946 in Ybor City, Florida to Mildred Williams and Judge Williams. Williams graduated from George S. Middleton High School in 1963, and enrolled at the University of Florida, where she and thirteen other African American students integrated the College of Journalism. Williams received her B.S. degree in journalism and communication in 1967, and was the first African American to be awarded the Hearst Journalism Award. Upon graduating, she accepted a position as a general assignment reporter at The St. Petersburg Times. Williams earned her M.B.A. degree from Atlanta University in 1972.

During the early 1970s, Williams worked as an assistant manager at First Federal Savings and Loan before becoming the first African American female manager of Freedom Savings and Loan in Tampa, Florida in 1973. She also worked as an education planner and state coordinator with the Model Cities Program for the City of Tampa. Williams enrolled at the Florida State University College of Law in 1977, earning her J.D. degree in 1981. She was then hired by the Florida Department of Insurance, where she worked as a staff attorney. In 1982, she became the owner and publisher of the Capitol Outlook newspaper in Tallahassee, Florida. In the early 1990s, Williams moved to South Africa, where she worked as a writer for Ebony - South Africa. She also established Management Consultancies and conceptualized her book Up to the Bottom while living in Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon returning to the United States in the late 1990s, Williams practiced law with her daughter, Salesia Smith-Gordon, in Palm Beach, Florida before moving to Hillsborough County, Florida, where she worked as an attorney in the 13th Judicial Circuit Court.

Williams helped to establish the Greater Tampa Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., and served on the board of the Bob Gilbertson Central City Family YMCA. She also served on the board of the Joshua House, Infants and Young Children of West Central Florida, Inc. and founded the East Ybor Historic & Civic Association, Inc. She was also a marathon runner, participating in a Lymphoma and Leukemia marathon in 2001, the 60-mile walk for Breast Cancer in 2006, and the Egyptian Pyramids Marathon for Infants and Young Children of West Central Florida, Inc. in 2011. Williams received the Tampa NAACP’s Living Legend Award in 2015 and the Griot Drum Award from the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists in 2017.

Williams has one daughter, Salesia Smith-Gordon, one son, Walter L. Smith, II, and one grandson, Walter L. Smith, III.

Jeraldine Williams was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 9, 2018.

Lawyer Barbara Phillips was born on February 7, 1949 in Pulaski, Virginia to Mary Russell Phillips and Charles Phillips III. She was one of four African American students to desegregate Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1965. Phillips went on to receive her B.A. degree in history from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1971, and her J.D. degree from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1976. Later, she earned her J.S.M. degree from Stanford Law School in Stanford, California in 1994.

In 1971, Phillips began working for the Black Economic Research Center and Emergency Land Fund at its Jackson, Mississippi office. After completing her studies at the Northwestern University School of Law, Phillips became the special assistant attorney general at the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General in 1976. After two years, Phillips returned to Jackson to become the staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under The Law. While there, she played a key role in two Mississippi Supreme Court cases in 1981: Loewen v. Turnipseed and Phillips v. Joint Legislative Committee on Performance and Expenditure Review. Then, in 1985, Phillips moved to San Francisco, California and became a founding partner in the law firm of Rosen & Phillips. In 1987, she was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where she oversaw the implementation of policies concerning diversity in hiring and promotion within the San Francisco Fire Department. Phillips became the first African American woman to join the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1994. She left that position in 1999 to serve as the program officer of the Peace and Social Justice Program at the Ford Foundation. Then, in 2006, Phillips started her own consulting firm, Barbara Y. Phillips.

Phillips was a founding member of the Jackson Women’s Coalition and the Southern Coalition for Educational Equity. She also served as vice president of the Mississippi Civil Liberties Union; and as the president of the Northern California Black Women Lawyers Association. She served on the board of directors of the Bar Association of San Francisco; the Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the African Women’s Development Fund USA; and Women’s Learning Partnership. Several of Phillips’ articles, including “Dignity and Human Rights, Reconsidering Reynolds v. Sims” and “Thoughts on the Emerging Separate but Equal Doctrine,” have been published in law reviews and textbooks.

Barbara Phillips was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 13, 2018.