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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. Woman's Rights Champion THE recent election of Mrs. Myra Bradwell to the Editor's Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois, because she was the first woman to become a member of the Illinois Press association, was an event of more than local significance. For Mrs. Bradwell, the able editor of the Chicago Legal News who was three times elected vice president of the state press association, was also an attorney and as such she became a national figure as one of the pioneers in the fight for equal rights for women. Born in Manchester, Vt., on February Feb-ruary 12, 1831, Myra Colby emigrated emi-grated to Illinois in the early 1840s. She was educated at a "ladies seminary" semi-nary" in Elgin, 111., where she later became a teacher. After teaching school for a time in Memphis, Tenn., she returned to Chicago where she met and married mar-ried Judge B. Bradwell. With no idea of becoming a practitioner, she began studying law under the tutelage of her husband. Later she decided that she might be a valuable valu-able assistant to Judge Bradwell in his business, so she applied herself vigorously to her studies and passed' the Illinois bar examinations. But she had to obtain a formal license, since the Illinois statutes provided that no "person" could practice law in the state without obtaining a license li-cense from two of the justices of the supreme court. Therefore in 1872 she presented her application and was surprised to learn that she was not a "person." As a married woman, Mrs. Bradwell Brad-well could not make a contract, the court said. Since she could not make a contract, she was not a person! "And, even if the legislature did not exclude women from the practice of law, it must have intended to do so because we adopted the common law of England and for a woman to have entered the courts of Westminster West-minster hall as a barrister would have created hardly less astonishment astonish-ment than if she should be elected to the house of commons" the learned learn-ed justices continued. But Myra Bradwell was not convinced con-vinced by this logic. She cited the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution Con-stitution of the United States, enacted four years earlier, which said that no law could abridge the privileges and immunities of a citizen of the United States. She was a citizen of the United States, then why should her privilege to practice law be abridged? Evidently the Illinois Il-linois justices didn't recognize the Fourteenth amendment for they refused re-fused to grant her a license. Thereupon Mrs. Bradwell sued out a writ of error against the state of Illinois in the Supreme court of the United States. Her case was argued by United States Senator Matt. Carpenter Car-penter of Wisconsin, but the Su preme court not only upheld and approved the ruling of the Illinois court but made some additions cf its own. Instead of only one opinion being handed down, there were many affirming the decision. However one was different. At the conclusion of all the opinions was this notation: "The Chief Justice, Samuel Portland Chase, dissented from the judgment of the Court, and from all the opinions." But that was small satisfaction to Myra Bradwell. Brad-well. She had appealed to the highest high-est court in the land for justice and it had been refused. She never again renewed her application for a license to practice law. Several years later she was much surprised to receive a certificate of admission from the Illinois supreme court, the very court that had first refused her original application! Thus she also became the first woman member of the Illinois Bar association. Mrs. Bradwell established the Chicago Legal News, the publication which won her membership in the Illinois Press association, in 1869. It was the first weekly legal newspaper news-paper ever published in the western states and Mrs. Bradwell was both its editor and business manager for many years. The Illinois state legislature legis-lature gave her a special charter for her paper and passed several acts making its contents evidence in the courts and a valid medium for the publication of legal notices. She was also "a leader in promoting professional ideals in journalism." |