Clara Ruth Mozzor (1892 – died after 1937) was an American lawyer. She became Assistant Attorney General of Colorado in 1917, the first woman to serve in that role in any American state.

Early life

Mozzor was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Peter and Celia Mozzor, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

; she was raised in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She graduated from East Denver High School in 1909, and attended the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

, and completed her education at the

University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies in ...

in 1915.

Career

Mozzor taught school as a young woman, helped to organize a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

in Denver, and wrote for newspapers. In 1913, she was a delegate to the Children's Welfare Congress held in Boston. In 1914, during the

Colorado Coalfield War The Colorado Coalfield War was a major labor uprising in the Southern and Central Colorado Front Range between September 1913 and December 1914. Striking began in late summer 1913, organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) agai ...

, Mozzor wrote about visiting the scene of the Ludlow Massacre, two days after the event. "Waste and ruin, death and misery were the harvest of this war that was waged on helpless people," she wrote, for the '' International Socialist Review.'' "Mothers with babies at their breasts and babies at their skirts and mothers with babies yet unborn were the targets of this modern warfare." Mozzor was admitted to the Colorado bar in 1915. She was the youngest woman lawyer in Colorado, and she became Assistant Attorney General of Colorado in 1917, the first woman to hold that position in any American state. She worked with Mary C. C. Bradford to raise money for Colorado soldiers during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and she arranged for a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

troupe to entertain the soldiers based in camps near Denver. After marriage, Clara Mozzor Neuhaus lived in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, and was active on the Nebraska state board of the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

, and, as a doctor's wife, in the state chapter of the women's auxiliary of the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's state ...

Personal life

Clara Mozzor married German-born psychiatrist George Emile Neuhaus in 1922. They lived in Nebraska and had daughters Ruth and Geisa, before Dr. Neuhaus died in 1938.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mozzor, Clara Ruth 1892 births 20th-century deaths Lawyers from Providence, Rhode Island University of Denver alumni University of Colorado Law School alumni 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers