in Macon
Mercer Law School first advertised for female law students in August of 1917. The following ad appeared in the Macon Daily Telegraph: "Women have been admitted to practice in Georgia, and the Mercer Law Course is open to them."
Miss Alene Hardin, billed as Macon's "first lady lawyer" was in practice by July of 1918, and maintained a law office at 301 Georgia Casualty Building (American Federal) for almost twenty years. Miss Hardin was also an animal rights advocate and distributed straw bonnets to downtown horses. She successfully lobbied the Mayor to provide hats for all of the city's work horses.
In June of 1919, Mrs. W. E. Jackson became the first woman graduate of the Mercer Law School to practice in Macon. When she appeared in the Superior Court on behalf of a criminal client, it was covered on the front page of the newspaper.
Viola Ross Napier of Macon was admitted to practice in 1920. She became the first woman to argue a case before the Georgia Court of Appeals, and before the Supreme Court of Georgia, in 1922. She was the first female to serve in the General Assembly.
Frank McKenney
Macon Bar Historian