Bessie Margolin became a member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter at Sophie Newcomb College. Born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, she and her family moved to Tennessee. Her mother died when Margolin was a child, and her father was unable to care for their children. A prominent Memphis rabbi suggested they be sent to the Jewish Children’s Home in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Isidore Newman School, where the home’s children were enrolled, provided a milieu in which Margolin could thrive. She graduated with honors at 16. A scholarship led her to Sophie Newcomb College, part of Tulane University.
While at Newcomb, Margolin held an office in AEPhi, was in clubs and played intramurals. She became aware that it was possible to attend Tulane, which was then all male. She could earn a degree from Arts and Science and one from the Tulane Law School simultaneously, although it would take an extra year. Of the 23 students in her law school class, she graduated second. She was the first woman member of Tulane’s Order of the Coif as well as being a member of the charter class.
Margolin then went to New Haven, Connecticut, where she began work on a J.D. at Yale Law School. After graduation she encountered the same fate as the other female lawyers of her time. Law firms, especially prestigious ones, were not welcoming and would not hire them.
She became the first female attorney working for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Margolin then joined the U.S. Department of Labor. Margolin was a fair labor law advocate and expert. She won almost all of the more than 20 cases she argued before the United States Supreme Court.
Margolin served temporarily in the War Department after World War II and helped draft the regulation which established the Nuremberg Tribunals. She also attended the Nuremberg Trials.
An advocate for equal pay, Margolin helped create the Equal Pay Act. In 1966, she was a cofounder of the National Organization of Women. One hopes that she crossed paths with AEPhi sister Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
She retired in 1972 but occasionally taught a class at George Washington University. Margolin died on June 19, 1996, at the age of 87.
