Last Updated: 25 Apr, 2024 | Views: 332
Age: 52
Profession: Lawyer
Other Profession(s): Activist
Famous For: First Black Canadian Woman Lawyer
Higher Education: Law Degree at the University of Alberta
About (Profile/Biography):
Violet Pauline King Henry was born on October 18, 1929 & died on March 30, 1982. She was the first black woman lawyer in Canada, the first black person to graduate with a law degree in Alberta, and the first black person to become a member of the Alberta Bar. She was also the first woman to hold a senior management position with the American National YMCA.
Violet King Henry Career
Violet King Henry Early Life
• Violet King Henry attended Crescent Heights High School, where she was president of the Girls Association in grade 12 and noted in her yearbook that she intended to study criminal law.
• The University of Alberta welcomed her in 1948, and she joined the feminist Blue Stocking Club (modeled after the Blue Stockings Society), served as Vice President of the Students Union, and represented the Students' Union at the National Federation of Canadian University Students.
• 1952, Violet King Henry was elected Alberta's representative at the International Student Services Conference in Hamilton.
Violet King Henry Legal Studies
• Violet King Henry graduated from the University of Alberta in 1953 and became a member of the Alberta Bar in 1954.
• Several newspapers covered these achievements prominently, including The Calgary Herald, The Albertan, and The Edmonton Journal. Her legal achievements were regarded as significant in Canadian law.
Violet King Henry Professional Career
• During her time in Calgary, King practiced criminal law, articling for E. J. McCormick. She worked on domestic violence cases and was assigned five murder cases by E.J McCormick. Above and beyond merely article work, King represented clients in criminal cases, including five murder cases.
• Later, around 1956, she joined Citizenship and Immigration Canada as a senior administrative officer, where she was twice promoted.
• Violet King Henry moved to the United States in 1963 and worked for the YW/YMCA in Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois, helping African Americans find jobs.
• Her appointment as Executive Director of the National YMCA's Organizational Development Group in 1976 made her the first woman to hold a senior management position with the organization.
Violet King Henry Legacy
• The University of Alberta will award the Violet King Henry Law School Award in 2022 to celebrate King's outstanding contribution to Canadian law and Black education in the country. The scholarship is worth $20,000 and will be granted to Black students in the Faculty of Law at the university.
• Her speech at the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority Banquet commemorates King's resilience in defying oppression in society and the workplace for people of color.
Violet King Henry Personal Life
• Violet King Henry married Trinidadian-American Godfrey C. Henry, a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Political Science, in 1965, and they lived in Newark, New Jersey.
• Violet King Henry gave birth to her only child, Jo-Anne Henry, in 1966. In 1982, King died of cancer in New York City at 52.
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