Spotlights

ANTHONY GREGORY BROWN

Profile Summary by Gina Smith

Anthony Gregory Brown has been a trailblazer breaking barriers for most of his life.

Brown was born in 1961 in Huntington, New York, to immigrant parents. In his senior year, Brown became the first African American to be elected president of Huntington High School's student council. In 1984, Brown graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. cum laude, and as a Distinguished Military Graduate through MIT’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Upon graduation, Brown received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served on active duty for five years. He graduated first in his flight class at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and received his aeronautical rating as an Army aviator.

After completing his active-duty service, Brown returned to graduate school, entering Harvard Law School in 1989 and earning his JD degree in 1992. Brown continued his military service transferring from the Army's Aviation Branch to the Judge Advocate General's Corps as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the United States Army Reserve.

In 1994, Brown joined the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering (now WilmerHale). While putting his roots down in Maryland, Brown practiced law with the late John Payton a renowned civil rights attorney and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Stephen H. Sachs, who was the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland from 1967 to 1970 and was the 40th Attorney General of Maryland.

Brown's political career began in 1998 when he was elected to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing the 25th district in Prince George's County. In 2004, Brown, then a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, was deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Brown served in Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk, and Basra with the 353rd Civil Affairs Command and he received the Bronze Star for his distinguished service in Iraq.

In 2006, Brown was elected Lieutenant Governor on a ticket with Martin O'Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore. Brown served two terms as Lieutenant Governor.

In 2014, Brown became the first African American at the top of the democratic ticket for Maryland governor. Although Larry Hogan would win that governor’s race, Brown returned to political office in 2016 earning a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland’s Congressional District 4. During his time in Congress, Brown served on the Committee for Armed Services, Committee on Ethics, Committee on Natural Resources and Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure.

In 2022, Brown successfully ran for Attorney General. On January 3, 2023, Brown was sworn into office becoming Maryland’s first African American Attorney General.

In his current role, Brown will continue to be a leading voice on equity and justice matters building on his past accomplishments which include: fighting to repeal the death penalty in Maryland; decriminalizing marijuana and expanding record expungement; adopting stringent background checks and training requirements for gun sales; banning assault rifles and large capacity magazines; expanding protections for victims of domestic violence and abused and neglected children, and veterans with mental and behavioral health needs; and ensuring transparency and fairness in our policing and criminal justice systems.

In addition to being a veteran and dedicated public servant, Brown is a husband to Karmen Walker and father of three young adults.

NATASHA DARTIGUE

Profile Summary by Francisco Carriedo

Natasha Dartigue received her law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1995 and worked on the Howard Law Journal. Upon law school graduation, Ms. Dartigue clerked in the Baltimore City Circuit Court for the late Judge Roger W. Brown.

Following her clerkship, she joined the Office of the Public Defender (“OPD”) in Baltimore City, where she served in many capacities during her 26-year tenure. She began her career as trial attorney in the juvenile, district and circuit court divisions. Over time, she was elevated to serve as a felony trial supervisor, Deputy District Public Defender for Baltimore City, and Acting District Public Defender.

In May 2022, Ms. Dartigue made history when she was appointed to serve as the Maryland State Public Defender, becoming the first person of color to lead the office. Ms. Dartigue, who is the daughter of Haitian immigrants, has highlighted the importance of her historic appointment, noting that it “redefines what leadership looks like and expands the possibilities for Black and brown children.” She adds that it “especially provides hope to children of immigrants, who are often overlooked and undervalued, that opportunities do exist.” Ms. Dartigue began serving her six-year term on July 1, 2022.

At work and in the community, much of Ms. Dartigue’s energy is devoted to providing individuals with the tools to be successful. She is a community advocate, active member leader of various professional organizations including the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA), Bar Association for Baltimore City, Monumental City Bar Association, Alliance of Black Women Attorneys, the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, the Women’s Bar Association, and Innovation Works. Additionally, she is a social equity strategist who creates workshops to promote shared understanding and greater awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion issues. She provides implicit bias trainings and leadership development instruction at local, state, and national conferences.

For her significant accomplishments, outstanding leadership and dedicated public service, Ms. Dartigue has received various awards and acknowledgements from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, National Association of Public Defenders and the Baltimore City Department of Recreation & Parks. Ms. Dartigue was also recognized as Government lawyer of the Year by the Bar Association of Baltimore City.

In 2018, the Maryland Daily Record bestowed Ms. Dartigue the Leadership in Law Award. She was also named one of the Daily Record’s 2018 Top 100 Women. In 2022, Ms. Dartigue was again recognized for her significant contributions in the field of law by The Daily Record, and selected as a 2022 Influential Marylander honoree. She continues to be a trailblazer and the Baltimore Sun acknowledged her as one of “25 Black Marylanders to Watch in 2023.

Mr. Carriedo is an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland.

PAULI MURRAY

A Trailblazer in the Law, Activist Against Racial and Sex Discrimination, and the First Black Woman Ordained an Episcopal Priest

Profile Summary by Sonia Kumar

Pauli Murray was a Maryland-born Black scholar, lawyer, activist and writer whose work shaped landmark civil rights cases and movements, yet whose profound contributions to the advancement of civil rights remain largely unacknowledged. Murray was an architect of some of the most significant civil rights arguments in recent American history, including key arguments in Brown v. Board used by Thurgood Marshall to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to women in Reed v Reed, used by Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young lawyer in briefs on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union before the U.S. Supreme Court, among many others.

Born in Baltimore in 1910 and later raised in Durham, North Carolina by extended family, Pauli Murray was a Black person whose writings reflected feeling misgendered as a woman.* The deep pride in Blackness instilled by Murray’s family and the intersection of Murray’s identities converged and shaped Murray’s life’s choices and vision for human rights.

As a young person, Murray refused to acquiesce to the “separate but equal” doctrine and actively avoided participating in it whenever possible; for example, choosing to ride bicycles instead of segregated public buses. Murray sought admission to better-resourced white schools rather than attend a segregated colleges and graduate schools, but was unable to gain legal assistance to do so. Murray’s letter-writing campaign to gain admission to graduate programs at the all-white University of North Carolina did not result in admission, but did lead to a lifelong correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Murray challenged anti-Black racism through civil disobedience and media campaigns well before the height of the mainstream civil rights movement. In 1940, 15 years before the Montgomery bus boycotts, Pauli Murray and a friend refused to move to a Blacks-only section of a segregated bus in Virginia; because they were charged under a disorderly conduct statute instead of state segregation laws, the case fizzled out. The following year, Murray enrolled in Howard Law school; Murray was the only woman in the entire class. While in law school, Murray joined the Congress of Racial Equality, organized sit-ins at D.C. lunch counters, and worked vigorously to establish equal rights for Black Americans.

Later, a professor at Howard would share with Thurgood Marshall a paper Murray wrote as a student on how to attack Plessy v. Ferguson; several of Murray’s arguments were used in the seminal case Brown v. Board of Education. Murray’s prolific writings included several books, including a book documenting race-based laws in every state that the ACLU distributed widely, and Thurgood Marshall referred to as a “bible” of the civil rights movement.

Murray graduated at the top of the 1944 Howard Law class; although tradition was that the valedictorian at Howard was granted admission to Harvard Law, Harvard refused to admit women and thus Murray was denied. Based on these and other experiences, Murray coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe the compounding harms of race and sex discrimination against Black women.

Murray also is regarded among the first to argue that the Fourteenth Amendment could be used to challenge discrimination on the basis of sex; indeed, Murray’s contributions to this theory were so significant that Ruth Bader Ginsberg, then a law professor writing for the ACLU, credited Murray as an honorary co-author in briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court in Reed v. Reed, the landmark case establishing that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited sex discrimination. Murray served on the board of directors for the national ACLU and was also one of the founders of the National Organization for Women, but became frustrated with the organization’s lack of engagement with Black women.

Murray achieved so many “firsts” that it is impossible to capture them all, and they only scratch the surface of Murray’s contributions to the law and the advancement of justice, but among them: in 1965, Murray was the first Black person to obtain Doctorate of Law from Yale Law School, and in 1977, Murray was the first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. The Church later designated Murray a saint.

Murray’s legacy is so much more than the scholarship that influenced key legal arguments shaping the civil rights movement. Murray’s life and work provide a powerful reminder that in nearly every instance, the first people to make the “winning” argument are those who are most directly affected by an injustice, but sometimes they are just too far ahead of their time. In the documentary film My Name is Pauli Murray, Justice Ginsburg observes: “We were not inventing something new. We were saying the same things Pauli had said years earlier at a time when society was not prepared to listen.”

* Some scholars of Murray’s life believe Murray would identify as trans or non-binary today. Out of respect for Murray’s experiences, this article avoids designating pronouns for Murray, but refers to Murray as a woman when relevant to the discrimination Murray experienced.

***

For further learning: Pauli Murray’s autobiography, Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage; Rosalind Rosenberg, Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray; documentary My Name is Pauli Murray.

Ms. Kumar is the Senior Staff Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

SHIRLEY BRANNOCK JONES

Maryland’s First Female Federal District Court Judge; First Female Judge Elected to the Old Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, and First Female Assistant Attorney General

Photo Credit: Weyman Swagger/Baltimore Sun 1982

Profile Summary by Maria Salacuse

Shirley Brannock Jones was not only Maryland's first female Federal District Court Judge, she was also the first female Federal District Court Judge in the entire Fourth Circuit as well as the first female assistant attorney general and the first female judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City.

Born to a civilian Coast Guard worker and sailmaker and a homemaker in Cambridge, Maryland, Jones graduated in 1942 from Cambridge High School. After receiving her associate degree in 1944 from what is now Baltimore City Community College, she received a law degree from the University of Baltimore in 1946. Admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1947, she worked for the state Department of Employment Security until she was appointed assistant city solicitor. She later became a Maryland’s first female assistant attorney general from 1958 to 1959, a judge of the Orphans’ Court, and the first female judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City beginning in 1961.

On May 22, 1978, Present Jimmy Carter nominated Jones to become a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. After being confirmed by the United States Commission, she received her commission on October 5, 1978, becoming the first female United States District Court Judge in Maryland as well as the entire Fourth Circuit. Jones continued as a United States District Court Judge until her resignation on December 31, 1982. Jones died on May 16, 2019, at the age of 93.

In discussing her career during an interview with The Baltimore Sun in 1982, Judge Jones reflected, “I had it tough, but not as tough as those women lawyers before me. Women couldn’t even belong to the city bar association until 1957. That was an obstacle in your profession.” As Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr., former judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals and the Circuit Court of Baltimore County, and a longtime friend of Jones noted in her 2019 obituary in The Baltimore Sun, "She was an excellent judge and made it easier for the female lawyers who joined her and followed her through the door. ... She opened the door wider for all of them.”

** For more information on Judge Jones, see Frederick N. Rasmussen, "Judge Shirley B. Jones, The First Female Federal Judge in Maryland History, Dies," BALT. SUN, May 29, 2019 and Charles V. Flowers, Making a Case for Women, BALT. SUN, Dec. 5, 1982.

Maria Salacuse is an Assistant General Counsel with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Any views presented in this profile are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of her employer.

ROSE ZETZER

First Woman Admitted to the Maryland State Bar Association

Photo Credit: BALT. SUN., April 9, 1998

It was not until 1946 that Maryland admitted women into its state bar association, making Maryland the last state to admit women to a state bar association. Prior to that time, women lawyers formed their own groups such as the Women’s Lawyers Association (the precursor to the Women’s Bar Association). Rose Zetzer was undaunted by the exclusion, applying for membership to the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) twenty consecutive times until she was finally admitted in 1946.

Born in 1904 in Baltimore City to Russian immigrants, Zetzer attended city schools and according to a 1970 interview in the Evening Sun, decided to become a lawyer when she was in the eighth grade during a discussion about whether women should have the right to vote. Zetzer graduated from Eastern High School, attended the Johns Hopkins and then received her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1925. Zetzer’s efforts to apply to a law firm were unsuccessful, largely because the law firms preferred to hire her as a stenographer. She instead opened her own law practice in Baltimore City and in 1940 formed Maryland’s first all women law firm: Zetzer, Carton, Friedler & Parke. She and other women also formed the Women’s Bar Association in 1927. From 1926 to 1946, Zetzer applied for membership to the MSBA, submitting a check for membership. But each year, the MSBA returned her check. When the MSBA finally granted Zetzer admission, Maryland was the last state to admit women to a state bar association. (It would be another 10 years until women were granted membership into the Bar Association for Baltimore City.).

In addition to pushing for women to be admitted to the MSBA, she also lobbied for women to be jury members. The Maryland General Assembly passed a partial (exempting 12 counties) women’s jury service bill in 1947.

Metzer died on April 5, 1998, at the age of ninety-four.

*** For more information on Metzer, see Deborah Sweet Eyler, The Early Female Jewish Members of the Maryland Bar: 1920–1929, 74 Md. L. Rev. 545 (2015); Lynne A. Battaglia & Evelyn Lombardo Cusson, "From Exclusion to Acceptance: Women Lawyers in Maryland," Maryland State Bar Association, available at www.msba.org; and Fred Rasmussen, “Rose Zetzer, 94, Founded 1^st All-Female Law Firm in Md.”, BALT. SUN., April 9, 1998. For information on women on Maryland juries, see Dennis M. Sweeney, "June 1 Marks Anniversary of Having Women on Maryland Juries," Maryland Daily Record, May 31, 2010

ETTA HAYNIE MADDOX

First Woman Licensed to Practice Law in Maryland & Suffragist

Photo Credit: The Baltimore City Historical Society Inc.

Profile Summary by Maria Salacuse

Etta Haynie Maddox was the first woman licensed to practice law in Maryland. Born in 1860 in Baltimore, Maryland, she attended Eastern Female High School and later studied voice at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. While traveling as a vocalist, she became involved in the suffrage movement. In 1900, the Baltimore Law School accepted her into its first class of students where she was the only female in the class. Although she graduated in 1901, she could not take the bar or practice law because the Act of 1898 limited the practice of law to men. See e.g. Section 3 of Chapter 139 of the Act ("All applications for admission to the bar shall be referred by the Court of Appeals to the State Board of Law Examiners, who shall examine the applicant, touching his qualifications for admission to the bar.")(empahsis added). Maddox petitioned the Court of Appeals to permit her to take the bar exam, but the Court denied her request, finding that that the right to practice law was not a natural inherent right. In re Etta H. Maddox, 50 A. 487 (Md. 1901). After Maddox lobbied the state legislature, State Senator Jacob M. Moses introduced Senate Bill No. 30 to amend law to admit women to the bar. On April 8, 1902, Governor John Walter Smith signed it into law.

Maddox took and passed the bar examination with distinction in June 1902. On September 11, 1902, the Court of Appeals formally admitted her to the bar making her the first licensed woman lawyer in the State of Maryland. On March 4, 1911, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland admitted Maddox to practice before it. In addition to practicing law, Maddox was actively involved in women’s suffrage, co-founding the Maryland Suffrage Association and writing the Maryland’s suffrage bill in 1910. After the United States Constitution was amended to give women the right to vote, Maddox remained active in pressing for social changes including equal pay for equal work. She died in Baltimore on February 19, 1933, and is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.

*** For additional information on Maddox, please see the Maryland State Archives' biography and related underlying historical sources, including interesting Baltimore Sun articles.

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