Lena O. Smith Home, 3905 5th Avenue South
Lena O. Smith was the first African-American woman to practice law in Minneapolis in the 1920s and 1930s. Smith was also the first woman president of the Minneapolis NAACP. With the appointment of Wilhemina Wright, the first African-American woman to the Minneapolis Supreme Court, this recent commentary recalls her pioneering predecessor.
Smith graduated from Northwestern College of Law (later merged into what is now William Mitchell) and was only the third African-American woman to pass the bar in the whole United States. After she moved to Minnesota in 1908 from Kansas she tried hairdressing, dermatology and graduated from embalming school before taking up the study and practice of law. She crusaded against discrimination, taking legal challenges to the Pantages Theater, Nicollet Hotel and White Castle. She represented the Lee Family after a race riot took place outside their 4600 Columbus Avenue South home in heavily segregated Minneapolis.
