Mahala Ashley Dickerson
(1912-2007)
The first female attorney in her home state of Alabama in 1948 and the second black woman admitted to the bar in Indiana in 1951. Alaska’s first black lawyer homesteader in the Mat-Su region of Alaska.
First Black Lawyer to Prosecute “Equal Pay Cases” women professor. The first black president of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL).
Mahala Ashley was born on October 12, 1912 to John Augustine Ashley, the owner of a general store, and Hattie Moss Ashley. She had two sisters, Erna and Harriet Dickerson grew up in Montgomery County, Alabama on a plantation owned by her father. She attended a private school, Miss White’s School, where she began a lifelong friendship with Rosa Parks, who would become a hero of the civil rights movement. She graduated cum laude from Fisk University in Nashville in 1935 with a degree in sociology. Three years later, she married Henry Dickerson, with whom she had triplet sons; Alfred, John, and Chris, who became a world-renowned body builder. The marriage, however, lasted less than a year.
In 1948, Dickerson received her law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., again graduating cum laude. She was admitted to the Alabama bar in June 1948 and established law offices in Montgomery and Tuskegee. During her long legal career, she was known as an advocate for the rights for the poor and the underprivileged, whether black or white. She accepted many cases for which she received no compensation and served as a mentor to young minority attorneys. She was also an advocate for workers’ rights. One of her most prominent labor cases was an equal-pay suit on behalf of a female professor at the University of Alaska, who received a salary lower than her male counterparts. Although she lost the case, it was later reversed on appeal. Even as she fought for the rights of others, Dickerson herself faced gender and racial discrimination from members of the legal establishment and the various bar associations. In 1982 she was honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for her civil rights work.
In 1983 Dickerson became the first African American president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. The following year, the University of Alaska In 1995 the National Bar Association honored Dickerson by presenting her with the Margaret Brent Award.
In 2006 she was awarded the Alabama State Bar’s Maud McLure Kelly Award, presented annually to an outstanding female attorney.
In 1998, Dickerson published an autobiography, Delayed Justice for Sale, in which she details not only her life but also her views on the ill-treatment of the poor and underprivileged in the United States. She chose the title to reflect her hope that people who have suffered injustice live long enough to see those injustices corrected. Dickerson practiced law up to the age of 91 until her illness took her at the age of 94 . she passed away on Monday February 19, 2007, in Wasilla, Alaska, and was buried on her property.
MAHALA QUOTE;
“In my life, I didn’t have but two things to do. Those were to stay black and to die. I’m just not afraid to fight somebody big…Whenever there’s somebody being mistreated, if they want me, I’ll help them.”
Mrs. Dickerson was a true trailblazer with unsurpassed courage and humility. Her life struggles in her career did not hold her down. She kept going knowing there was so much people in need of help. With this intention and integrity she not only accomplished what she set out to do but was awarded even up to the end. Honors to you Mrs. Dickerson.
By Neville Sober
resources Alabama Encyclopedia
Alaska Journal
News Dept Archives