PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
A look back at 2014
“
Atlanta Bar Association Year in Review
By Jacquelyn H. Saylor
The Saylor Law Firm LLP
“It is good to have a
reminder of the numerous
activities of the Atlanta Bar
Association to see all that
is available and to remind
us of the value of our
membership.”
W
Weeks became the first female President. Others have
followed: Deborah Zink, Paula Frederick, Elizabeth Price,
Shayna Steinfeld, Rita Sheffey and Lynn Roberson. I have
the honor of following in their footsteps.
Please be sure to study the timeline of the Atlanta Bar
Association’s history on pages 32-37. You will find more
information about this year’s civil rights theme which was
chosen because of the 50th anniversary of the passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which expanded rights for African
Americans, women and others. Women were first permitted to
join the Atlanta Bar in 1917, three years before women gained
the right to vote. Six years before women were permitted
membership, the President of the Bar debated another Bar
member as to whether women should be admitted. In 1990,
73 years after the first female was allowed to join, Carolyn
In 1963, a year before the Civil Rights Act was passed,
three African Americans joined the Atlanta Bar, as previously
they had not been welcome. One new member was J. C.
Daughtery, who became an urban Georgia legislator when
the county unit system, which favored rural legislators, was
declared illegal. I had the privilege of serving under his
leadership when I was Legal Counsel to the Special Judiciary
Committee in the Georgia House of Representatives. In 1999,
36 years after the first African Americans became members,
Paula Frederick became the first African American President.
Ray Persons was the 100th President of the Bar, and in May
2015, Harold Franklin will be sworn in as the Association’s
next President. The 125th Anniversary of the founding of
the Atlanta Bar Association was celebrated earlier this year,
e hope you will enjoy The Atlanta Lawyer’s
first Year in Review edition. It is good to have a
reminder of the numerous activities of the Atlanta
Bar Association that are available and to remind us of the
value of our membership. If the Section and Committee
activities were included, this column would be as long as the
whole newsletter.
4 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
December 2014
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association