American judge
Susie Sharp
|
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Sharp in 1967
|
|
|
In office
January 2, 1975 ? July 31, 1979
|
Preceded by
| William Bobbitt
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Joseph Branch
|
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|
|
Born
| (
1907-07-07
)
July 7, 1907
Rocky Mount
,
North Carolina
,
U.S.
|
---|
Died
| March 1, 1996
(1996-03-01)
(aged 88)
Raleigh
,
North Carolina
,
U.S.
|
---|
Political party
| Democratic
|
---|
Education
| University of North Carolina, Greensboro
(
BA
)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
(
LLB
)
|
---|
|
Susie Marshall Sharp
(July 7, 1907 – March 1, 1996) was an American jurist who served as the
first female chief justice
of the
North Carolina Supreme Court
.
[1]
She was not the first woman to head the
highest court in a U.S. state
, but is believed to be the first woman elected to such a post in a state, like
North Carolina
, in which the position is elected by the people separately from that of
Associate Justice
. In 1965,
Lorna E. Lockwood
became the first female chief justice of a state supreme court, but in Arizona, the
Supreme Court
justices elect their chief justice.
Early years
[
edit
]
Sharp was born in 1907 in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina
to Annie (nee Blackwell) and James M. Sharp but spent most of her life in
Rockingham County, North Carolina
.
[2]
In 1926 she entered law school at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
as the only woman in her class, and graduated Order of the Coif.. In 1929, Sharp went into private practice with her father in the firm of Sharp & Sharp.
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
In 1949, Governor
Kerr Scott
appointed her a state
Superior Court
judge, making her the first female judge in the history of the state. After Sharp became a Superior Court judge, Tom Bost of the
Greensboro Daily News
questioned "what would happen if Sharp was faced with trying a case of rape? Wouldn't that be too much for a woman?" Judge Sharp wrote back that "In the first place, there could have been no rape had not a woman been present, and I consider it eminently fitting that one be in on the 'pay-off'."
[4]
Judge Sharp insisted that "to preserve our civilization today requires total participation by us all?men and women?and the impartial administration of justice is the final goal of civilized society." Sharp believed that it was woman's duty to serve on all juries.
[5]
Judge Sharp was re-appointed by successive governors, and in 1962, Governor
Terry Sanford
made Sharp the first female Associate Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme Court
.
[6]
Justice Sharp was elected by the people that November and again in November 1966 to a full eight-year term. In 1974, voters gave her 74 percent of the vote to elect her Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, succeeding her close friend, Chief Justice
William H. Bobbitt
.
Time
, in its January 5, 1976 cover story, named Sharp one of the 12 "women of the year" for 1975. In so doing, Time called her a "trail blazer" with a "reputation as both a compassionate jurist and an incisive legal scholar".
[7]
Senator
Sam Ervin
, a fellow Democrat, recommended to President
Richard Nixon
that he appoint her to the
United States Supreme Court
.
[8]
Nixon declined the advice, and a woman would not be appointed to the Court until
Sandra Day O'Connor
in 1981.
During Justice Sharp's 17-year tenure on the Supreme Court, she wrote 459 majority opinions, 124 concurring opinions, and 45 dissenting opinions.
[8]
Retirement
[
edit
]
By law, Justice Sharp had to retire at age 72, which came in 1979. After retiring, she successfully pushed for a constitutional amendment in 1980 that required all judges to be lawyers after her 1974 opponent was a fire extinguisher salesman. Sharp died at age 88, in 1996.
[9]
Justice Sharp was also the aunt of Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch, subject of the book
Bitter Blood
by
Jerry Bledsoe
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Legal offices
|
Preceded by
|
Chief Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme Court
1975?1979
|
Succeeded by
|
Awards
|
Preceded by
|
Time
Person of the Year
1975
Served alongside:
Susan Brownmiller
,
Kathleen Byerly
,
Alison Cheek
,
Jill Conway
,
Betty Ford
,
Ella Grasso
,
Carla Hills
,
Barbara Jordan
,
Billie Jean King
,
Carol Sutton
,
Addie Wyatt
|
Succeeded by
|
|
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1927?1950
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1951?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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International
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National
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Other
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