Virginia Henry Mayfield

Virginia Henry Mayfield (died February 4, 1944) was the first female judge in Alabama.[1][2]

Personal life

Mayfield was born in Birmingham, Alabama and attended that city's public schools.[3][4] Her father, who came from an established family in the state, was the county treasurer.[5] She had one brother and seven sisters.[6][5]

She taught school in Decatur, Alabama and then in Birmingham, first at the Baker School for five years and then spent one year at Martin's school.[4][6] During the summers, she studied at the University of Chicago.[4]

She married Cephus Tayler Mayfield, an assistant traffic mamager at Tennessee Coal and Iron, in 1914.[2][6] The couple lived at 3221 Cliff Road in Birmingham beginning in 1921.[2] Cephus died in 1933.[6]

Mayfield earned her law degree from Birmingham Southern College in 1920 and was admitted to the bar in 1921.[4][2][3] She was, along with Floella T. Bonner, the first woman in Alabama to earn a law degree.[7] Mayfield also studied at the State College of Cedar Falls.[2]

She was a member of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare,[8] a Methodist church, and the Order of the Eastern Star.[6] She died on February 4, 1944, in Washington DC.[4]

Career

After graduating from law school, she worked in the County Treasurer's Legal Department.[3] In 1923, she was appointed to a six-year term on the Court of Domestic Relations in the second division of the Birmingham Circuit Court by Governor William W. Brandon.[4][9][10] Mayfield was the first woman in Alabama to be appointed as a judge.[2][4][5][3] She was also the youngest.[2]

In 1927, she ran for a position on the circuit bench but was defeated by Roger Snyder, the incumbent.[4] When she ran in Jefferson County, she was the first woman to do so.[4] Following her loss, she took a position as the state land agent in Jefferson County.[6] She then moved to Washington, DC, where she took a position in the Department of Justice.[6] The Department transferred her to the Birmingham office where she worked until the office was closed.[6] She returned to Washington on staff at the Federal Communications Commission and then worked as a lawyer in the Veteran's Administration in Washington DC.[4][6] Mayfield was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1935.[11]

See also

References
  1. "Women in the Judiciary" (PDF). Court News. August 1984.
  2. Dabney, Richard (2006-11-08). Birmingham's Highland Park. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439617496.
  3. "Magic City Woman Appointed Judge". The Tuscaloosa News. The Associated Press. September 30, 1923. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Women's History Month" (PDF). The ABBHS Newsletter. Alabama Bench and Bar Historical Society (March/April 2010): 7. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  5. "Judge Virginia Henry Mayfield is the First Woman Judge in South". The Montgomery Advertiser. September 29, 1923. p. 8. Retrieved April 30, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Judge Mayfield Dies After Short Illness in Washington Hospital". The Birmingham News. February 5, 1944. p. 6. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  7. "State News". The Selma Times-Journal. June 4, 1923. p. 2. Retrieved April 30, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Reed, Linda (September 1994). Simple Decency & Common Sense: The Southern Conference Movement, 1938-1963. Indiana University Press. pp. 22–. ISBN 0-253-20912-9. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  9. "Correction" (PDF). Court News. Alabama Judicial System (October 1984): 9. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  10. "Camera Record of the Day's News". The Courier-News. Bridgewater, New Jersey. July 30, 1924. p. 8. Retrieved April 30, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Supreme Court of the United States" (PDF). November 22, 1935. p. 83. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
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