African American Women (S-Z)
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Judge Juanita Kidd Stout was born in 1919 in Wewoka, Oklahoma. Both of her parents were teachers, and she herself would teach in Seminole and Sand Springs. Later she moved to Washington D.C., where she studied to be an attorney. Stout made history in 1959 when she became the first elected African American female judge in the United States. She was respected for being tough but fair, and influenced many people during her time on the bench. In 1988 Stout became the first African American woman to serve on a supreme court. She was later inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, and named Justice of the Year by the National Association of Women. Stout died in 1998. |
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Opaline Wadkins came to Oklahoma in 1938 and began work for the Department of Public Health. She organized the first school in Oklahoma to train black nurses and, in the 1950s, worked to desegregate OU's College of Nursing. Ms. Wadkins established Langston's School of Nursing in the 1970s and is a member of the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame. |
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Aunt Minerva Willis, along with Uncle Wallace, were slaves in the mid-19th century that were known for their spirituals. Their owner, Britt Willis, himself a Choctaw, often hired them out to work for a school. The students would listen to them as they sang while they worked. Both were then asked to perform the songs for the students in the evening. Some of the best known spirituals composed by Uncle Wallace - and sung by Aunt Minverva - are "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "The Angels Are A'Comin," and "Roll, Jordan, Roll."   |
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