Pioneering Woman Lawyer Runs for President

Belva Lockwood (1830–1917), the first woman lawyer admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected suffrage leaders’ appeals in 1884 to support Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine, maintaining instead that women needed their “own party.” Joined by California activist Marietta L. B. Stow (ca. 1830–1902) as her running mate, Lockwood and the National Equal Rights Party joined a crowded slate, which included Benjamin F. Butler on both the Anti-Monopoly and Greenback parties’ ticket.