Pioneer lawyer dies at 94

Feb. 23, 2007

BY DIMITRA LAVRAKAS

Frontiersman

WASILLA - Mahala Ashley Dickerson, 94, a pioneering African-American lawyer, died peacefully at her homestead in Wasilla on Monday after suffering a stroke several weeks ago.

Born in Alabama on her father's plantation in 1913, she blazed a trail not often taken by black women, her life spanning decades of struggle and progress.

Most of all, she is remembered as fearless, especially in defense of those often overlooked by the legal system, said her sons Chris and John Dickerson, who returned home to Alaska this week.

&#8220My mother always taught us to be fearless and stand up for ourselves,” John said. &#8220I remember at 14, feeling kind of sophomoric and beginning to feel my oats, and I had an issue over going to a birthday party and having to wear a jacket. It was too warm. Well, I started to argue using reason and logic, and she just said, ‘John be quiet, I'm the mother and you're the child, be quiet,'” and he laughs at the memory.

&#8220She always gave us that fortitude,” said John, who will move to the family homestead this year.

His brother Chris said their mother encouraged them to follow whatever dream they might have.

&#8220She said, ‘Follow it. Be a poet if you want to be a poet.' That was her philosophy,” Chris said.

Dickerson was a fierce defender of people in need and described that calling in the book, &#8220Rebels in Law: Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers,” by John Clay Smith.

&#8220I have described myself as attorney for the hopeless, borrowing the title from a book I once read on the life of Clarence Darrow in which he was described as ‘Attorney for the Damned,'” she wrote.

Very often she did not take payment, and that practice continued after her retirement in 2003 at the age of 90, according to her son, John.

&#8220When she returned from Anchorage, even here in the Valley, she would still take cases and not be paid,” John said.

Dickerson arrived in Alaska in 1958 after driving the Alaska Highway with her triplets, John, Alfred and Chris. Four days after arriving, Alfred drowned in Goose Lake.

Chris Dickerson remembers how his mother took the news.

&#8220When she heard of my brother Alfred's death and that they couldn't bring him around, she stood up,” Chris said. &#8220Usually when people get bad news, they stay seated, but she stood up immediately. It's that kind of courage in the face of bad news, she just stood up and took it.”

Chris refers to himself as &#8220the caboose” of the triplets, with John being born first and Alfred in the middle.

The brothers said she was a selfless woman who didn't really take all the &#8220firsts” she accomplished very seriously.

&#8220She was very modest. She wouldn't talk about it, but just go on to the next case at hand,” said Chris. &#8220In 1995, when she was given the prestigious Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association, she accepted it, and it was all news to her.”

In 1948, she became the first African-American woman and first woman, period, to become a lawyer in her home state of Alabama, and when she arrived here, was the first African-American homesteader in the Matanuska Valley.

She graduated cum laude from both Fiske University and Howard University, but her Phi Beta Kappa key was given to her 50 years later because the organization did not recognize black colleges at the time of her graduation. In 1994, she was given an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

A book she wrote about her life, &#8220Delayed Justice for Sale,” was published in 1998.

With a simple Quaker service, she was buried Wednesday on her homestead next to the grave of her son Alfred.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.