Ollie May Cooper (1887-1981) was a pioneering African-American lawyer who served for more than four decades in various capacities at Howard University School of Law. She was also one of the founders of the Epsilon Sigma Iota Legal Sorority.^[1] She was the second African-American woman after Lutie Lytle to serve as a law professor. She died in 1981 at the age of 94 leaving no children. Her legacy lives on in the annual Ollie May Cooper Award given out to deserving lawyers who are members of the Washington Bar Association. Cooper and Isadore Letcher were the first African-American women to set up a law firm owned and operated by women.

References

^ "Epsilon Sigma Iota". Howard University School of Law. Retrieved 2 April 2019.

Smith, J. C. (1999). Rebels in law: Voices in history of Black women lawyers. Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan Press. ^[1] James, R. J. (2010). Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

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Ollie May Cooper (1887-April 14, 1981) was an American lawyer, business owner, and law professor. Born in Bell, Tennessee, Cooper spent much of her life in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1921. She was only the thirteenth female graduate of the school. Cooper was a founding member of the Epsilon Sigma Iota legal sorority. During and after her graduation, she served as a clerk, stenographer, and secretary at the school. She served on the notoriously gruff but highly regarded Charles Hamilton Houston who referred to her as "Dean Cooper." She was admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar in 1926 and opened a private practice with fellow lawyer Isadora Letcher. Theirs was the first practice in the country to be owned and operated exclusively by African-American women. Cooper joined the Washington Bar Association and was an active member of the chapter and the National Bar Association. She served as Vice President of the Washington Bar Association at one point. In recognition of her contributions as a lawyer and legal pioneer, the Ollie May Cooper Award was created at the behest of J. Clay Smith and the Board of ____ of the Washington Bar Association

References

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1981/04/17/ollie-cooper-94-dies/1401dd75-342c-4e4a-870a-b2f67224e2ef/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2e4f35fd5a21

http://washingtonbar.org/calendar/ollie-may-cooper-award-and-founders-lecture-series/308-2/

OLLIE MAY COOPER: THE “REAL DEAN” OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW. (1980). Howard Law Journal, 23(3). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1302740916/

McNeil, G., & Higginbotham, A. (1983). Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhtc5 pg. 80 Ollie May Cooper

^ Smith, J. C., ed. (2000). Rebels in law: Voices in history of Black women lawyers. Ann Arbor, Michigan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

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[1] "Epsilon Sigma Iota". Howard University School of Law. Retrieved 2 April 2019.

[2] Smith, J. C., ed. (2000). Rebels in law: Voices in history of Black women lawyers. Ann Arbor, Michigan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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