Cora Thomasina Walker (June 20, 1922 – July 13, 2006) was an influential

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

lawyer and one of the first black women to practice law in the state of

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. Walker was born on June 20, 1922, in

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to William and Benetta Jones Walker. Her parents separated when she was an adolescent, and she, her mother, and her eight siblings dependent on public assistance. When Walker graduated from James Monroe High School, she began to support her family with two jobs and at the same time enrolled in a six-year program at St. John's University in which students earned both a bachelor's and a law degree. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in June 1945. She graduated from the School of Law at St. John's University in 1946. As a black woman in the 1940s, she found it difficult to find work after she was admitted to the

New York State Bar The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice; ...

in 1947, so she started her own practice in Harlem, where she represented residents in the neighborhood until her retirement in 1999. From 1976 to 1999, she was the senior partner in Walker & Bailey, a law firm which she established with her son. She ran for the

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in 1958 and 1964. In the 1950s or 1960s, Walker became The Harlem Lawyers Association's first female president. In 1970, the New York Times listed her as one of the most powerful people in Harlem. In 1988 Walker, then the chair of the

National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 65,000 lawyers, judges, law profess ...

Commercial Law Section, founded the Corporate Counsel Conference to connect corporations with the counsel of African-American attorneys. On January 25, 1992 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws from St. John's University. She also received a Medal of Honor from St. John's University on June 9, 2000. Walker was married to, then divorced from, fellow lawyer Lawrence Bailey, with whom she had two sons, Lawrence Jr., and Bruce E. Bailey. Beginning in 2005, The National Bar Association Commercial Law Section began giving out an award honoring Walker.

References/Notes and references

1922 births 2006 deaths African-American women lawyers James Monroe High School (New York City) alumni St. John's University School of Law alumni New York (state) lawyers Lawyers from Manhattan People from Harlem Lawyers from Charlotte, North Carolina 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers National Bar Association 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American lawyers {{Law-bio-stub