The achievements of our alumni have been extraordinary. Our first woman graduate, Tamar Althouse Scholz, graduated in 1892. At that time only eight state universities (including Indiana University) accepted women. Our first Asian-American graduate, Masuji Miyakawa, graduated in 1905. Our first Black graduate, Sam Dargan, graduated in 1909 and was known as the father of the IU Law School. You can read more about the Law School’s history here.
As one of the nation’s oldest public law schools, we can point with pride to the many graduates who are role models for the importance of diversity in the legal profession. As women and minorities became members of the profession, our graduates took leadership roles in Indiana and far beyond. Here are just a few examples:
- Masuji Miyakawa, the first Japanese American to be admitted to a bar in the United States
- Hon. Juanita Kidd Stout, the first Black woman to be elected as a state court judge, and then later the first Black woman to serve on a state supreme court
- Hon. Shirley Abrahamson, the first woman judge on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, its first woman chief justice, and the longest-serving justice in the history of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
- Hon. Franklin Cleckley, the first Black judge to be serve on the West Virginia Supreme Court
- Hon. Clarine Nardi Riddle, the first and only woman to serve as Connecticut’s Attorney General, and the youngest person to hold that position
- Hon. Rodolfo Lozano, the first Hispanic federal judge in Indiana, for which the Indiana Hispanic Bar Association
