Juanita Jackson Mitchell

Juanita Elizabeth Jackson Mitchell (January 2, 1913 – July 7, 1992) was the first African-American woman to practice law in Maryland, and was a civil rights activist and organizer with the NAACP.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Kieffer Albert Jackson and Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson. Mitchell's parents were Methodists who had been traveling the country to evangelize, but they soon returned to Baltimore, where they had met, to have a good environment to raise their children. Lillie became a committed civil rights activist after a major medical crisis in 1918, and built the Baltimore NAACP branch to become one of the organization's most important. She also invested in real estate, which helped support the family. At the university, she successfully organized desegregation of the school's dormitories.

In 1933, her group started a local boycott campaign, Buy Where You Can Work, which later spread to many cities under the same name, or under Don't Buy Where You Can't Work. This protested businesses that mainly served Black consumers but only hired white employees. At one local business, the A&P grocery store, the manager believed hiring Black workers would lead current white employees to quit. After a few days of boycotting, the manager caved. The campaign mainly targeted libraries, welfare agencies, and schools, with Mitchell emphasizing that Black people in Baltimore could not be firemen, policemen, or social workers at the time, and had to live in court-enforced ghettos. Buy Where You Can Work led the Enoch Pratt Free Library to sponsor training programs for new Black employees, and the Baltimore Relief Commission to hire five Black social workers, in 1934. The same year, Mitchell was elected vice president of the National Council of Methodist Youth during a conference in Evanston, Illinois, where she encouraged youth to protest Jim Crow laws in the city and organize against lynching.

Career

Youth and College Division In her earlier years, Mitchell traveled extensively throughout the U.S. for the Bureau of Negro Work and the Methodist church, speaking and teaching courses in race relations. From 1935 to 1938, she was special assistant to Walter F. White, NAACP Executive Secretary. In 1933, White had released a memo to the NAACP Board of Directors critiquing the lack of a standardized youth program in the NAACP, saying that young people's ideas were often stifled. Mitchell and other members lobbied hard to form a new youth program, and in 1935, at the NAACP's 26th annual convention, the Board voted to restructure its youth division, creating the Youth and College Division with Mitchell as its first national director in 1936.

Mitchell wanted to widen the accessibility of the youth division, widening the eligible age range from the previous 14-21 year cutoffs to 12-26, where different age brackets could be in junior youth councils, youth councils, or college chapters. The main goal of these chapters were to support Black youth in becoming community leaders and activists, and this helped build a pipeline of committed NAACP members. Her five objectives in the division were to educate youth about economic, political, and social problems for people of color; supporting national campaigns for antilynching, civil rights, equal education and employment laws; teaching Black history and pride; developing militant and intelligent leaders; and building interracial understanding and cooperation. The main four focuses of most youth councils of the time were campaigns for better rights and laws: equal education, employment opportunities, civil liberties, and antilynching legislation.

Mitchell was recognized in the political arena for being a crusader and leader. She was named to the White House Conference on "Women and Civil Rights" by John F. Kennedy and in 1966 she was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights" which dealt with finding solutions concerning African Americans in relation to economic security, education and justice. From 1965-1967, she was also co-chairman of the Baltimore mayor's Task Force Committee on Police-Community relations, and she counseled freedom riders and protestors of segregated restaurants at the same time. She spoke frequently against police brutality and mistreatment of Maryland prisoners. In 1985 she helped initiate the Stop the Killing Campaign after four Black teenagers were shot in Baltimore. Juanita Jackson Mitchell came from a long line of civil activists and continued the line. She was the mother of former state senators Michael B. Mitchell and Clarence M. Mitchell III. Her grandson, Clarence M. Mitchell IV was a Member of the Maryland House of Delegates and then a Member of the Maryland State Senate. Her grandson, Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr., was a member of the Baltimore City Council and ran for Mayor of Baltimore in 2007.

Juanita Mitchell was rendered a quadriplegic in November 1989 after falling down a flight of stairs. While undergoing therapy for that injury, she suffered a stroke, her second since 1985; she was 79.

A group of lawyers chartered the Everett J. Waring / Juanita Jackson Mitchell Law Society of Howard County ("WMLS") in Maryland on April 23, 1985, to support Howard County's community of Black judges, lawyers, and elected leaders. The organization was named for Mitchell and Everett J. Waring, both of whom it describes as "outstanding African American attorneys of historical significance". The group is affiliated with the Maryland and national bar associations and is involved in community legal outreach, professional mentoring, judicial nominations and civic initiatives.