Beaulah Wheeler

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Yearbook Photo of Beulah Wheeler Beulah Wheeler.png
Yearbook Photo of Beulah Wheeler

Beulah Wheeler was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Iowa's College of Law in 1921.

Contents

Early life

Beulah Wheeler appears to be from Marshalltown, Iowa. [1]

University of Iowa's College of Law

In May 1921, her short story "Soapsud Dreams" won second place in a university-held short story contest, which she described as a study in realism. [2] Her speech “Uniform Marriage and Divorce Law" won first place in the Women’s Extemporaneous Speech Contest hosted by the women's Forensic League with a prize money award of $10. [3] Her photo was featured in the 1922 Hawkeye for winning first place. [4] She also won athletic awards for playing basketball and volleyball. [5] [6] Though she graduated in 1921, she reportedly did not receive her law degree until forty-one years later. [7]

The Iowa Bystander , a four-page weekly to serve as the voice of Iowa’s African American community, featured Wheeler in an article in 1920. When she was a student at Iowa State College, she was noted to have "quadrupled" the subscriptions to the periodical for Topeka, Kansas. [8]

The Daily Iowan reported that she was one of two women taking the bar examinations, reported on June 11, 1924. [9]

After school, she moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, for three years and then to Chicago, where she practiced law. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "Beulah Wheeler Wins Contest by Default" (PDF). Daily Iowan. January 12, 1921. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Women who paved the way at Iowa Law | College of Law - The University of Iowa". law.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-30.
  3. ↑ "Non-Literary Society Woman Given First Place in Extempore" (PDF). Daily Iowan. Iowa City, Iowa. January 21, 1921. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Women's Extemporaneous Contest". University of Iowa Hawkeye yearbook, 1922. 1922. p. 325. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Preserving Black History in Iowa City". Iowa City. March 30, 2025. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Seniors Defeat Frosh In Volley Ball Game" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. November 28, 1923. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  7. ↑ Breaux, Richard M. (April 2002). ""Maintaining a Home for Girls": The Iowa Federation of Colored Women's Clubs at the University of Iowa, 1919-1950". The Journal of African American History. 87 (2): 236–255. doi:10.2307/1562465. ISSN   1548-1867. JSTOR   1562465.
  8. ↑ "Beulah wheeler student at Iowa State working for Bystander traveling in Kansas". The Bystander. 1920-08-26. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-03-30.
  9. ↑ "Fifty-Eight Law Students Finish Bar Examinations" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. June 11, 1924. Retrieved March 30, 2025.


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