04/15/2022
At a time when most African American women were domestics, Violette (Neatley) Anderson had a professional career as a court reporter (1905 - 1920). Her successful stenography, shorthand, and court reporting business in the downtown Chicago district sparked her interest in the law. Her company was the ONLY one to employ African American women, and according to the Crisis magazine, “all the colored lawyers and many noted white lawyers” were among her patrons. On Sunday, June 20, 1920, graduating from Chicago Law School, she became the woman to graduate from law school in Illinois. The ONLY woman in her class, Anderson, served as an officer. She later established a private practice in her home at 53rd and Michigan after passing the bar and being licensed before the United States Eastern District of Illinois. Anderson was one of the women of any race in Illinois to engage in private law practice.
In 1922, Anderson successfully defended a woman accused of murdering her husband; this resulted in her being appointed as an Assistant Prosecutor in Chicago (January 1923). She was the and the appointed to that post. After five years of practice before the high court of Illinois, in 1926, Violette Neatley Anderson became the female attorney admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court. This achievement set a precedent that allowed other black women to do the same.
During the four years that Anderson was the National President of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, it was evident that she had not only stressed and worked for the development of Finer Womanhood for Ζeta but had done so for all humanity.
Attorney Anderson made the personal contacts that made Zeta alive in some of our leading colleges, universities, and cities. Her guidance as a Zeta, Christian, lawyer, club woman, and a good citizen kept all Zetas inspired and living up to their ideal of Finer Womanhood.
In her Chicago home, Violette Neatley Anderson died of colon cancer on December 21, 1937, and was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island - Cook County, Illinois, on December 24, 1937. In January 1938, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated held a memorial for Anderson in Houston, Texas. The Sorority donated a portrait of her to the Chicago Public Library, which now hangs in the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at Carter G. Woodson Regional Library. The loss of Anderson was a heavy blow to the organization, which was felt during the national convention in Houston, Texas, following her death. Members were distraught; however, they knew President Anderson would be happy that Zeta was ending the year on such a sweet note. As Anderson would have wanted, the Sorority continued to move forward.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated recognizes her life every April as “Violette Neatley Anderson Day,” on April 15th in her memory. Anderson showed her final Zeta act of love by bequeathing her summer home, named “Birch Haven,” located in Idlewild, Michigan, to the Sorority. Idlewild was an all-black resort area located in Michigan at that time.
Today, many Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated women continue to be trailblazers in the legal field. Those who have earned the privilege to practice before the Supreme Court know that 8th National President Violette (Neatley) Anderson paved the way for African American women, making appointments like that of Ketanji Brown Jackson possible.
Happy Violette Neatley Anderson Day!
