Elreta Melton Alexander-Ralston

Elreta Narcissus Alexander-Ralston ( Melton; March 21, 1919 – March 14, 1998) was an American trial attorney and district court judge in North Carolina. She was the first black woman to become a judge via popular election in the U.S., the first black judge elected in North Carolina, and the first black woman to practice law in North Carolina. With an unusual career, she has been noted for her “refusal to allow the circumstances of her birth, the realities of her time, and the limitations imposed by others define her destiny.” However, Alexander-Ralston's legacy has remained largely unrecognized, with her story untold for many years.

Early life Elreta Narcissus Melton was born on March 21, 1919, in the small town of Smithfield, North Carolina. Her parents, Joseph C. Melton and Alain A. Reynolds Melton, were both teachers, and Joseph later became a Baptist minister. Elreta had two older siblings. The family moved to Scotland Neck, North Carolina soon after Elreta was born, and in 1925, they moved to Danville, Virginia, where Alain taught and Joseph was pastor at the Loyal Baptist Church.

Alexander-Ralston's father, Joseph was her mother Alain's high school teacher, and they started dating before she was transferred from his class, marrying after she finished her second year of college. Alexander-Ralston stated that her mother had married her father to be able to leave home, and did not want to marry a preacher. Alexander-Ralston's maternal grandparents had an interracial relationship but her grandfather, a white shopkeeper, kept his store segregated and their family had colorist prejudices. However, her father Joseph was an acceptable match to them due to his education from Shaw University, job as a minister, and light-colored skin.

Alexander-Ralston's parents believed strongly in education, and she remembered her father declaring that "nobody was going to sleep under his roof without a college education." Sharpe narrowly lost due to white candidates buying the votes of black voters, and this loss felt devastating to Alexander-Ralston. Sharpe told her that he believed the racial injustice of politics would improve one day, and he encouraged her to channel her frustration into action, bringing her a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries and encouraging her to become a much-needed lawyer to represent black people fairly in Greensboro. She faced immense pressure from Columbia to demonstrate that black women belonged at the school, starting when the law school Dean Young B. Smith told her that she was the first black woman they'd ever admitted, and the admissions office would watch her performance before admitting other black women.

Trial attorney Alexander-Ralston was a trial attorney for 21 years, establishing a large solo criminal practice as soon as she arrived in Greensboro. Her practice thrived, gaining clients frequently from her father and husband's networks. Six months after she started, she took Bill Godfrey's case. He was her first white client, a friend of hers who had received a major speeding ticket. At the time, it was almost unheard-of for black attorneys to represent white clients, but Godfrey begged her to help, and she checked that it would be permitted by the presiding judge before proceeding. She got Godfrey a good outcome and proceeded to pick up more white clients, along with the black clients she'd always represented. She began to build a reputation as a brilliant trial attorney and gained the respect of other attorneys. She was also known for wearing elaborate, fashionable outfits to court and building performances out of cases to cleverly tell a story to the jury. She was also the second black judge to be elected anywhere in the U.S. She became affectionately known as "Judge A" to the local community while on the court.

In 1969 she began one of her most notable accomplishments as a judge: "Judgment Day," which focused on rehabilitating young offenders and misdemeanants as an alternative to incarceration and criminal records. Once a year, on Judgment Day, participants would meet up and report on their progress on projects that helped their own lives or those of their loved ones. They were encouraged to support each other much like an Alcoholics Anonymous group would.

In 1990, she was invited to a banquet honoring pioneering black women lawyers, hosted by the North Carolina Bar Association.

In 2021, she received the Legal Legends of Color Award from the North Carolina Bar Association.

Personal life and death Alexander-Ralston's first marriage was to Girardeau “Tony” Alexander II, a physician who she had met in college. They secretly eloped in Asheboro, North Carolina on June 7, 1938, with Alexander-Ralston's large misgivings overruled by Tony's pressuring. The couple had one son, Girardeau Alexander III (born October 4, 1950). Alexander-Ralston said later that Tony engaged in affairs and was abusive, and she started distancing herself from him and carrying a gun. Her mother died in 1964, and her father in 1968, and two months later, Alexander-Ralston divorced Tony. They lived separately but she became his primary caretaker as his health worsened, until his death in 1976.

In 1979, Alexander-Ralston married John D. Ralston, a white retired judge from the IRS Appellate Division. She told press at the time that he had a great sense of humor and made her happier than she thought she could be, a stark contrast to what she described as the traumatic 30 years of her first marriage. John died in 1983.

Alexander-Ralston's son had schizophrenia and although she spent a lot of time trying to find education and caretaking solutions for him, Girardeau increasingly had unpredictable violent outbursts. In 1990, he killed his caretaker, Eula Mae Rankin, and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, although he lived the rest of his life in a group home instead. Alexander-Ralston's coworkers noted the toll that her son's troubles took on her health.

Alexander-Ralston died on March 14, 1998, and her ashes were buried in Greensboro, with no funeral or memorial service at her request.