Vaino Spencer

Vaino Spencer
Division One California Court of Appeal
Personal details
Born (1920-07-22)July 22, 1920
Los Angeles, California
Died October 25, 2016(2016-10-25) (aged 96)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Lorenzo V. Spencer
Education Polytechnic High School
Alma mater Los Angeles City College, Southwestern Law School
Profession lawyer
Known for first African-American woman appointed to a judgeship in California

Vaino Hassan Spencer (July 22, 1920 – October 25, 2016) was an American judge, the first African-American woman appointed to a judgeship in California.[1] She co-founded the Black Women Lawyers Association in 1975,[2] and the National Association of Women Judges in 1979.[3]

Early life and education

Vaino Hassan was born in 1920, in Los Angeles. As a teenager, she appeared as a dancer in a Laurel and Hardy movie, Bonnie Scotland (1935), along with her father, Abdul Hassan.[4]

She graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1938, attended Los Angeles City College as an undergraduate, and earned a law degree from Southwestern Law School in 1952.[5] She was the third African-American woman admitted to the California bar.[6] Before her law degree, she held a real estate license, and worked in that business.[7]

Career

Vaino Hassan Spencer practiced as a lawyer in Los Angeles. In 1961 she was appointed as a municipal court judge in Los Angeles, the first black woman in California appointed to a judgeship. In 1976, she became a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, and in 1980 she was named a Presiding Judge of the Division One California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District. She retired in 2007 as "one of the longest-serving judges in California history."[8]

Personal life and legacy

Vaino Hassan married real estate agent Lorenzo V. Spencer.[9] They divorced in 1967.[10]

The National Association of Women Judges presents the Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award for outstanding leadership.[11]

Spencer died on October 25, 2016, at her home in Los Angeles.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "L. A. Gets First Negro Woman Judge in State" Pasadena Independent (October 9, 1961): 2. via Newspapers.com
  2. ↑ Beth Ann Krier, "Double Minority: Black Women Lawyers Organize" Los Angeles Times (November 23, 1975): E1.
  3. ↑ Shae Collins, "Black History Abounds in L.A." Our Weekly Los Angeles (February 20, 2013).
  4. ↑ Amina Hassan, Loren Miller, Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist (University of Oklahoma Press 2015): 266, note 153. ISBN 9780806152677
  5. ↑ "Pioneering Alumna Vaino Spencer Retires from the Bench" Southwestern Law School, news release (October 17, 2007).
  6. ↑ Yussuf Simmonds, "African American Women Appeal Court Justices" Los Angeles Sentinel (March 29, 2012).
  7. ↑ Jessie Carnie Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women Volume 2 (VNR AG 1996): 612. ISBN 9780810391772
  8. ↑ "Vaino Spencer to Retired as Presiding Justice" Metropolitan News-Enterprise (August 27, 2007).
  9. ↑ "Woman Rules" Jet Magazine (October 26, 1961): 15.
  10. ↑ Beverly Beyette, "Q&A: Justice Vaino Spencer on her Career" Los Angeles Times (October 29, 1980): 10.
  11. ↑ National Association of Women Judges, NAWJ Award Descriptions.
  12. ↑ Vaino Spencer, Trailblazing Lawyer, Judge, Appeals Court PJ, Dies at 96
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