Edith Jacqueline Ingram (16 January 1942 - 5 June 2020) was an American judge. She and Romae Turner Powell became the first African American women judges in Georgia in 1968-1969.[1][2] Ingram served on Hancock County Court of the Ordinary for 36 years. She moved to Hancock County's probate court in 1973, making her the first African American woman probate judge in the United States. Her service to the courts resulted in recognition from the Georgia General Assembly. Before becoming a judge, she taught at Georgia schools.
Born in 1942, Edith Ingram lived in Sparta, Georgia with her parents, Robert T. Ingram and Katherine Hunt Ingram, and two brothers, Jerold O. Ingram and Robert L. Ingram.[3] She attended East End Elementary School and later graduated from L.S. Ingraham High School.[3] After high school, Ingram attended The City College of New York to pursue a nursing degree.[4] Ingram lived in New York for a brief time before returning to Georgia in 1960.[3] She graduated from Fort Valley State College (FVSU) in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in education.[5]
Career
Ingram worked as an elementary and high school educator in Griffin, Georgia and Sparta, Georgia before pursuing law in 1968.[5][6] In 1973, she moved to Hancock County's probate court, making her the first African American female probate judge in the United States.[5] She was responsible for overseeing marriages, wills, and civil disobedience cases. During his term as the Governor of Georgia, President Jimmy Carter awarded Ingram the honorary title of Lieutenant Colonel aide-de-camp and appointed her to serve as a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee.[3] She later worked for Joe Frank Harris as a part of the Georgia Governor's staff.[3] The Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Senate both passed resolutions in February 2000, honoring Ingram for her then 32 years of service for the Hancock County Probate Court.[7][8]
Hancock County Courthouse where Ingram-Grant presided over cases for 36 years.
Ingram continued to serve as a probate judge for Hancock County until 2004, when she retired after 36 years.[6] She was honored in the collection Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events, which recognizes the achievements of African-Americans.[5] She also has a scholarship named after her at FVSU.[9]
Throughout her career, she was a member of multiple professional organizations including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Hancock County NAACP, the Georgia Coalition of Black Women, and the Georgia Association of Probate Judges.[3] As a member of the Georgia Coalition of Black Women, Ingram, along with others, supported increasing voter registration and ending poverty and drug use within African-American communities.[10] Ingram also served as a board member of the Ebony International Learning Academy and Preparatory School.[11]
Personal life and death
Before her time as a judge, Ingram was an educator at Moore Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia and Hancock Central High School in Sparta, Georgia.[3][5] Ingram was recruited by the Hancock County Democratic Club to run for public office.[3] She was inspired to run for public office by her father, winning in 1968 and holding office for the next 36 years.[4] On June 5, 2020, Edith Ingram died from natural causes at her home in Sparta, Georgia.[6]
Towns County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,493. Its county seat is Hiawassee. The county was created on March 6, 1856, and named for lawyer, legislator, and politician George W. Towns.
Hancock County is a county located in the East Central part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,735. The county seat is Sparta. The county was created on December 17, 1793, and named for John Hancock, a Founding Father of the American Revolution.
Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is a suburban city, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 2020 census, the population is 7,318, up from 5,430 in 2010. Surrounding unincorporated areas with a Cumming mailing address have a population of approximately 100,000. Cumming is the county seat of Forsyth County.
Greensboro is a city in and the county seat of Greene County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 3,648 as of the 2020 census. The city is located approximately halfway between Atlanta and Augusta on Interstate 20.
Sparta is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Georgia, United States. It used to be part of the Milledgeville micropolitan statistical area until 2023. The city's population was 1,400 at the 2010 census.
Eatonton is a city in and the county seat of Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 6,307. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War. The name consists of his surname with the English suffix "ton", meaning "town".
Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives, and one of the first two African Americans elected to the U.S. House from the former Confederacy since 1901, alongside Andrew Young of Georgia.
Biddy Mason was an African-American nurse and a Californian real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was one of the founders of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, California. Enslaved upon birth, she developed a variety of skills and developed knowledge of medicine, child care, and livestock care. A California court granted freedom to her and her three daughters in 1856.
The number of women in the United States judiciary has increased as more women have entered law school, but women still face significant barriers in pursuing legal careers.
Edith Spurlock Sampson was an American lawyer and judge, and the first Black U.S. delegate appointed to the United Nations on 24 August 1950. She conceded that Black people did not have equal rights in America but she said "I would rather be a Negro in America than a citizen in any other land."
Amanda America Dickson was an African-American socialite in Georgia who became known as one of the wealthiest African-American women of the 19th century after inheriting a large estate from her white planter father.
Rosa Lee Ingram was an African-American sharecropper and widowed mother of 12 children in Georgia, who was at the center of one of the most explosive capital punishment cases in U.S. history. In the 1940s, she became an icon for the civil rights and social justice movement.
Judith Nelson Dilday is an American lawyer and the first person of color appointed as a judge of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court.
Edith Cumbo was a free mixed-race Black woman and entrepreneur who lived in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her life story is taught in American history curriculum to illustrate the challenges that free African Americans faced during the period of the American Revolution.
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