This past Monday, I hope you had a chance to read our February Newsletter and meet Charlotte E. Ray, who we celebrate and honor this Black History month because in 1872 she became the first female African American lawyer in the United States.  

[RBG] assumed the mantle of her unsolicited celebrity so graciously in her later years that she helped more than one generation reimagine a life in the law as simultaneously fulfilling and cool.

As we celebrate Black History month let us remember, celebrate, and honor with deeds and words the first female African American lawyer in the United States, Charlotte E. Ray. 

Last Saturday we had our Winter Leadership retreat with our Board, Staff and Co-Chairs! Each Lawyers Club year we have two leadership retreats, Summer and Winter, where we come together to connect, receive an organizational update and plan for the next half of the Lawyers Club year. While both leadership retreats in 2020-2021 have been virtual, the retreats nonetheless invigorated our leadership, all of whom are volunteers except the staff. 

I felt as if a protective, guiding hand had been lifted from not only my head, but from our country’s back, leaving us both adrift. 

What are you?” A question I constantly have tried to find a correct answer to growing up. My appearance next to my Caucasian mother would often collect second glances from others in the grocery store, at restaurants, or even school events. Once, I had a doctor who apparently did not read my chart before coming in the room, who suggested a course of action he thought best for “Hispanic women.” I should clarify, I am a half-Caucasian and half-African American woman. This is why, on November 7, I ugly cried as Kamala Harris was confirmed as the first female to be elected vice-president—a woman of color elected to the second-highest office in the nation. 

Hard to believe that the week of March 16, 2020, was the last week with a day of “normalcy”. I remember sitting in my office when there was rumbling of a possible state shutdown. It was an eerie feeling, surreal in many ways, and then bam, reality.  A reality no one imagined or was prepared for.

I thought I was a feminist. Yes, I am a member of Lawyers Club of San Diego. Yes, it’s a feminist organization. Yes, I am on the board. So, you would think I would know all about the ways in which our society has undervalued women. I thought I knew plenty, but I was wrong.