Oral History Interview with Lucy Somerville Howorth, June 20, 22, and 23, 1975. Interview G-0028. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
Lucy Somerville Howorth was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1895. Howorth recalls her mother's political activism as a Mississippi state legislator and as a suffragist. Her mother's leadership and political beliefs strongly informed Howorth's own sensibilities: she recalls that even as a child, she was aware of gender inequality believed that women should have legal and political equality. By the 1910s, Howorth had become involved in the women's suffrage movement. She helped to organize an Equal Rights Club for women while she attended Randolph-Macon Woman's College from 1912 to 1916. During World War I, Howorth lived in New York City, attending graduate school at Columbia University in psychology and economics, working for the Bureau of Allied Aircraft, and working for the YWCA industrial department. In 1920, Howorth decided to become a lawyer and since Columbia did not admit women students to law school, she returned to Mississippi to attend the University of Mississippi law school. One of the only two women law students at Mississippi at the time, Howorth graduated at the top of her class while actively involving herself in school activities. Following her graduation, Howorth practiced law, married Joseph Howorth, another southern lawyer, and became a judge. In 1932, during the Great Depression, Howorth successfully ran for the Mississippi state legislature, where she served until 1936. In 1934, Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed her to serve on the Board of Veterans Appeals, a position she held until 1943. Following World War II, Howorth worked actively to get women appointed to federal positions. Throughout her career, Howorth was involved in numerous women's organizations, including the YWCA, the American Association of University Women, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the Professional and Businesswomen's Club. She describes her involvement in these organizations, her perception of the women who led them, and how these organizations evolved over the years.
Excerpts
Women's suffrage as a basic human right
Description of Anna Howard Shaw's leadership
Establishment of the Equal Rights Association at Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Mississippi as progressive in women's education, but not for women's suffrage
"Sisterhood" between two female law students
Women's aspirations and expectations of them in college
Working for the YWCA
Working for the war industry and gender discrimination in the workplace
Southern woman's decision to become a lawyer
Southern woman excels in law school
Blending marriage and career
Southern woman's role in the Mississippi state legislature
Cloaking post-World War II women's organizations with patriotic rhetoric
Goals of the American Association of University Women
The YWCA and its role in the First International Conference of Working Women
The YWCA as a feminist organization
Support for the Equal Rights Amendment
Learn More
Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
Subjects
Women in politics
Young Women's Christian associations
Women judges--Mississippi
Women's rights
Women--Suffrage--Mississippi
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