Belva Ann Lockwood

Belva Ann Lockwood

1830-1917

• Washington, DC, lawyer and women's rights activist
• Born Belva Bennett in Royalton, NY
• Taught at a number of schools in upstate New York
• Her first husband died in 1853
• She resumed teaching and chose to continue her education
• Graduated from Genesee College (later Syracuse University) in 1857
• Relocated to Washington, DC
• Attended the new National University Law School from 1871 to 1873 and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1873
• In 1872 she secured the passage of a law granting equal pay for equal work to women employees in the federal government
• Became the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879)
• Lockwood ran twice for U.S. president as the National Equal Rights Party's candidate (1884 and 1888)
• In 1903 she wrote the congressional amendments granting suffrage to women in the new states of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico
• Lockwood was a delegate to various peace congresses in Europe