Ida Platt (September 29, 1863 – 1939) was an American lawyer, based in Chicago. In 1894, she became the first African-American woman licensed to practice law in Illinois, and the third in the United States.
Early life
Ida Platt was born in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, the daughter of Jacob F. and Amelia B. Platt. Her father owned a lumber business. She worked as a stenographer and secretary to pay her way at law school, and learned German and French in her work. She also studied piano as a young woman.
Platt was the first African-American woman to graduate from
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology. It is the second oldest law school in the state of Illinois. It is ranked 91st among U.S. law schools, and its trial advocacy program is ranked in ...
when she finished in 1894.
["Girls Want to Study Law: 100 Years of Women Graduates"](_blank)
online exhibit, Scholarly Commons, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Career
Ida Platt was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1894, becoming the first African-American woman lawyer in that state, and the third in the United States.
[Cook County Bar Association, About Us]
History
She worked in the Chicago office of Joseph Washington Errant, practicing probate and real estate law. In 1896 she spoke at the national convention of the Colored Women's League in New York City, on "Woman in the Profession of Law". She opened her own law office downtown in 1911.
She was a member of the
Cook County Bar Association.
Personal life
Ida Platt's cousin
Richard Theodore Greener
Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. He broke ground as Harvard College's first Black graduate in 1870. Within three ye ...
was the first African-American graduate of
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, dean of
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
's
School of Law
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
, and a diplomat in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
; his daughter
Belle da Costa Greene
Belle da Costa Greene (November 26, 1879 – May 10, 1950) was an American librarian best known for managing and developing the personal library of J. P. Morgan. After Morgan's death in 1913, Greene continued as librarian for his son, Jack ...
was a prominent librarian.
[Heidi Ardizzone]
''An Illuminated Life: Belle Da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege''
(W. W. Norton 2007): 313.
Platt married in 1923, at age 61, and moved to England. She died there in 1939, aged 76 years.
Today there is public housing for seniors in Chicago named the Ida Platt Apartments in her memory.
Appendix A: List of Senior-Designated Properties
, Chicago Housing Authority.
See also
**List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Illinois. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their s ...
References
Further reading
*Gwen Hoerr McNamee, "'Without Regard to Race, Sex or Color': Ida Platt, Esquire" ''Chicago Bar Association Record'' 13(May 1999): 24.
*Gwen Jordan, "Why Breaking Racial Barriers Doesn't Make Us Post-Racial: The Case of Black Women Lawyers in Illinois", Paper presented at the annual meeting of The Law and Society Association, Renaissance Chicago Hotel, Chicago, IL, May 27, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Ida
1863 births
1939 deaths
Lawyers from Chicago
Chicago-Kent College of Law alumni
African-American lawyers
19th-century American women lawyers
19th-century American lawyers
19th-century women lawyers
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American women