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Book Review
BELVA LOCKWOOD:
THE WOMAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT
by Jill Norgren
Published by New
York University Press, © 2007
by Jo Freeman
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Belva Lockwood was an ambitious women, and Belva Lockwood is an ambitious
book.
Famous in her day for many firsts, the US Postal service put her face on a
stamp in 1986. Because her papers were largely destroyed by her grandson
after her death in 1917, to write this biography Norgren had to track
Lockwood's footprints through newspapers, legal archives, and letters sent
to others that found their way into family files. This took a prodigious
amount of work over many years. The result is worth the wait.
Although best known for running for President in 1884 and 1888, Lockwood
was one of the pioneers who broke the barriers to women practicing law. She
was the second woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and the
first admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. Active for
suffrage, peace, temperance and other causes, she was constantly pushing the
boundaries of the possible.
Born on October 24, 1830, in upper New York state, Belva Ann Bennett had an
early appetite for education. At the age of 14 she taught in a rural school,
chafing that she was paid half the salary of her male counterpart. She would
eventually get a degree from a Methodist seminary for women and a law degree
from National University Law School but each of these required surmounting
obstacles created by her sex and her need to support herself.
Her seminary education and early career as a teacher — a common but poorly
paid position for a woman — might not have been possible had she not been
widowed at age 22. Teaching sharpened her ambition. Shortly after the end of
the Civil War, Belva sent her 16-year-old daughter to be educated at her own
alma mater and set off to Washington DC in search of opportunity. She
found it as "Washington's Lady Lawyer" after a long and rocky trek to her
law degree and admission to various bars. In the meantime she earned her
living as a rental agent, newspaper correspondent and sales representative,
and lecturer.
Drawn to politics, Belva traveled the South in 1872 as a paid campaigner
for Horace Greeley. In May of that year the notorious Victoria Claflin
Woodhull had herself nominated for President at a convention she called for
that purpose, but did little more. How Lockwood came to run for President in
1884 on the same Equal Rights Party ticket are "colored by ego and
memory." Suffice it to say that men ridiculed her and some prominent
Suffrage leaders strongly disapproved. But Lockwood did what Woodhull did
not do and ran a full campaign.
Lockwood was very pleased with her efforts. Her campaign generated enormous publicity, opportunities to travel, large audiences who paid to hear her
speak, and almost five thousand votes. She even made a small profit. Success
prompted her to try again in 1888 but this campaign produced more
disapproval and less satisfaction.
Norgren repeatedly points out Lockwood's flair for self-promotion, of which
her Presidential campaign was just one example. That talent not only made
her a prominent figure in her lifetime but left the newspaper stories which
made her biography possible. Lockwood's love of publicity was merged with
genuine devotion to several causes, making it difficult to identify her
motivations.
Despite her ardor for universal suffrage, she never found a niche for
herself in the Suffrage Movement. Instead she became a fixture in the peace
movement and a spokeswoman for the Universal Peace Union. She was a frequent
delegate to conferences urging peace and arbitration as the solution to
conflict. She spoke up for popular causes such as temperance and unpopular
causes such as the Mormons.
Belva married twice, but spent most of her life as a widow — the best
situation for an educated woman during an era when wives were subject to
their husbands and spinsters seen as less than full women. Her first husband
died four and a half years after their marriage, leaving behind the daughter
who would remain Belva's companion until an early death at age 44. In 1868
she married Ezekiel Lockwood, an elderly dentist, becoming a widow for the
second time nine years later. Their only child died at 18 months.
Family was very important to Belva. In 1877 she bought a large house on F
St. where she housed her law practice, her daughter, and various members of
her extended household. Spare rooms were rented out. The day-to-day law
practice of mostly pension and land claims was handled by her daughter and
other relatives. Belva was the 'rainmaker' for the family firm, attracting
clients through her travels and lectures. She wrote the briefs and
conducted the trials for the occasional high profile case. After her
daughter died, her law practice disintegrated.
By the time she died at age 86, Lockwood's star had long since faded. Her
house was sold to pay her debts. Her only heir shipped her papers to a pulp
mill. She had lived through a vast transformation of her society but her
fondest goals were yet to be realized. She still could not vote. Her
country had just voted to go to war and the prohibition amendment had not
yet passed. Much more time would pass before her life and her dreams would
be celebrated.
This book is a good read. It provides an enjoyable and enlightening
narration of US history and women's history as well as the history of a
life.
Jo Freeman is a political scientist and attorney. Her most recent book is At Berkeley in the Sixties: Education of an Activist (Indiana U. Press 2004).
Her previous book, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) was reviewed by Emily Mitchell, a Senior Women Web Culture Watch critic.
Jo's other books include: "The Politics of Women's Liberation" (1975), winner of a 1975 prize from the American Political Science Association for the Best Scholarly Book on Women and Politics; five editions of "Women: A Feminist Perspective" (ed.). She has also edited "Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies" (1983), and (with Victoria Johnson) "Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties." She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago (1973) and a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1982). Read more by and about Jo, including her books, at http://www.jofreeman.com and email her with comments and questions at joreen@jofreeman.com
©2007 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomenWeb
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