Violette Neatley Anderson, a member of Zeta Phi Beta was the first female African-American attorney admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. The year was 1926. Her journey to that Court was circuitous. She was born in England, but moved to Chicago with her parents when she was young In 1899, she graduated from high school. In 1903, she married, but it ended quickly in divorce, and in 1906, she married Dr. Daniel H. Anderson, a general practitioner.
Violette Neatley Anderson worked as a court reporter for 15 years before she enrolled in the Chicago Law School*. When she graduated in 1920, she passed the bar and went into private practice. She became an assistant prosecutor in Chicago, making her both the first woman and the first African-American to hold that job. She was one of the forces behind the Bankhead-Jones Actm which was signed into law in 1937.
Violette Anderson
While she was Grand Basileus of Zeta Phi Beta, she asked Lambda Zeta, a graduate chapter in Houston, Texas, to host the 1937 Grand Boule’ (national convention). It was the first time any African-American Greek-Letter Organization held a convention below the Mason-Dixon line.
The meetings took place in Houston’s black business area. The Y.W.C.A. cafeteria provided the meals because downtown Houston had no restaurants available to blacks. The delegates were housed with members and friends in their black neighborhoods.
Violette Anderson
And although she had made the connections to make the event happen, Anderson died before it took place. She had given the last four years of her life to Zeta Phi Beta as its 8th Grand Basileus.
After her death on December 24, 1937 at the age of 55, her summer home in Idlewild, Michigan was bequeathed to Zeta Phi Beta. Each April, the sorority remembers her with “Violette Anderson Day.”
*This post originally stated that the Chicago Law School was now part of the University of Chicago Law School. I was in error. The Chicago Law School existed in the early 1900s. The Chicago Law School and the University of Chicago Law Schools were separate entities. When it ceased operations, the Chicago Law School did not merge into the University of Chicago Law School. My apologies for this error.
