Zanzye H.A. Hill

Zanzye Herterzena A. Hill (January 12, 1906 – April 4, 1935) was Nebraska's first African American female lawyer.^[1]

Early life and education

Hill was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska,^[2] the daughter of Pinck M. E. Hill and Eliza Johnson Hill.^[3] Her older sister Brevy Hill Miller became a newspaper columnist;^[4] her younger sister XaCadene Hill Fox became a physician.^[5]

She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1924.^[6] She completed a bachelor's degree at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) in 1927.^[7] In 1929, Hill—whose poetry appeared in campus publications^[8]^[9]—became UNL's first African American female law graduate.^[10]^[11] She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority chapter at UNL,^[12] and the only Black member of the university vesper choir.^[5]^[7] She was also active with the Interracial Commission of the university YWCA.^[13]

Career

Shortly after law school, Hill became the first African American woman admitted to practice law in Nebraska. She taught briefly at Tuskegee Institute, and worked as chief counsel for an Arkansas insurance company.^[1]

Personal life and legacy

Hill died in 1935, in Mississippi, at the age of 29.^[14] She had been in poor health for some time, and was hospitalized for a surgery shortly before her death.^[15] Hill's achievements were recalled when Elizabeth Davis Pittman became the second Black woman was admitted to the Nebraska bar, in 1948.^[16] In 1982, Hill was one of the five historical Nebraskans honored during the state's first Women's History Week.^[17]

References

^ a b Smith, John Clay (1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 465. ISBN 9780812216851.
^ "Admitted to Bar". The Lincoln Star. 1929-06-09. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Keister, Douglas; Zimmer, Edward F. (2008). Lincoln in Black and White: 1910-1925. Arcadia Publishing. p. 78. ISBN 9780738561622.
^ Miller, Brevy (1948-10-28). "Household Hints". The Voice. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ a b Edler, Frank, and Mary K. Stillwell. "Celebrating Women's History Month: Rubie Shakespeare and Brevy Hill Miller, two local women who made a difference" Lincoln City Council Minutes, In Lieu of Directors' Organizational Meeting (March 29, 2021): 3-4.
^ Lincoln High School, The Links (1924 yearbook): 35. via Ancestry.
^ a b "College of Law Honors Colored Co-Ed". The Monitor. 1927-10-21. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Breaux, Richard M. (2004). "The New Negro Arts and Letters Movement among Black University Students in the Midwest, 1914-1940". Great Plains Quarterly. 24 (3): 153–154. ISSN 0275-7664. JSTOR 23533959.
^ Wintz, Cary D.; Glasrud, Bruce A. (2012-05-22). The Harlem Renaissance in the American West: The New Negro's Western Experience. Routledge. ISBN 9781136649103.
^ Bracks, Lean'tin L.; Smith, Jessie Carney (2014-10-16). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810885431.
^ "Great Plains Quarterly looks at New Negro movement in Midwest". UNL News Releases. September 15, 2004. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
^ "University Young People of Negro Race are Winning Recognition in Many Lines of Study and Activities". The Nebraska State Journal. 1929-03-10. p. 43. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Understanding of Racial Conditions Students' Object". Omaha Monitor. 1927-12-16. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Miss Zanzye Hill Dead; State's First Colored Woman Attorney Dies in South". The Nebraska State Journal. 1935-04-05. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Miss Zanzye H. Hill Dies in Mississippi". The Lincoln Star. 1935-04-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Omaha Woman Admitted to Bar". The Voice. 1948-09-30. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "History Week Salutes Women". Omaha World-Herald. 1982-03-07. pp. 85, 91. Retrieved 2023-01-14 – via Newspapers.com.

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