County of Johnston issued the following announcement on Sept. 25.
A path-breaking African-American attorney and judge from Smithfield will be the topic of a book talk at the Johnston County Heritage Center at 7 p.m. next Thursday (Sept. 29).
Historian Virginia L. Summey of Winston-Salem will discuss her book, The Life of Elreta Melton Alexander: Activism Within the Courts (University of Georgia Press, 2022).
Often called "Judge A," she was the first African-American woman to graduate from Columbia Law School (1945), to practice law in North Carolina (1947), and to be elected as a district court judge (1968).
She was born in Smithfield while her father was pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church, but most of her life and career were spent in Greensboro.
Original source can be found here.
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