This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Iowa. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are other distinctions, such as the first minority men in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.
Wade Hampton McCree Jr. was an American legal scholar and judge. He was the first African American appointed as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the second African-American United States Solicitor General in the history of the United States. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School after leaving government service in 1981, and taught there until the time of his death.
Arabella Mansfield, born Belle Aurelia Babb, became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869, admitted to the Iowa bar; she made her career as a college educator and administrator. Despite an Iowa state law restricting the bar exam to males, Mansfield had taken it and earned high scores. Shortly after her court challenge, Iowa amended its licensing statute and became the first state to accept women and minorities into its bar.
The University of Iowa College of Law is the law school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. It was founded in 1865.
Edna May Griffin was an American civil rights pioneer and human rights activist. Known as the "Rosa Parks of Iowa", her court battle against the Katz Drug Store in Des Moines in 1948, State of Iowa v. Katz, foreshadowed the civil rights movement and became a landmark case before the Iowa Supreme Court.
Joseph Clemens Howard Sr. was the first African American to win an election as judge for the Baltimore City Supreme Bench and was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, becoming the first African American to serve on that bench as well.
Alexander G. Clark was an African-American businessman and activist who served as United States Ambassador to Liberia in 1890–1891, where he died in office. In 1867 Clark sued to gain admission for his daughter to attend a local public school in Muscatine, Iowa. The case of Clark v. Board of School Directors achieved a constitutional ruling for integration from the Iowa Supreme Court in 1868, 86 years before the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He was a prominent leader in winning a state constitutional amendment that gained the right for African Americans in Iowa to vote (1868). Active in church, freemasonry, and the Republican Party, he became known for his speaking skills and was nicknamed "the Colored Orator of the West." He earned a law degree and became co-owner and editor of The Conservator in Chicago. His body was returned from Liberia in 1892 and buried in Muscatine, where his house has been preserved.
Willie Stevenson Glanton was an American lawyer and politician in the state of Iowa. She toured Africa and Southeast Asia for the U.S. State Department. She was a Democrat.
Christopher Lee McDonald is an American judge who has served as an associate justice of the Iowa Supreme Court since 2019.
Aletha June Franklin was an American politician and civil rights activist. Franklin was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1966. Franklin helped pass Iowa's Fair Housing Practices Law in 1967, and she was with the Iowa House of Representatives for three terms.