Juanita Kidd Stout

Juanita Kidd Stout ( born March 7, 1919 in Wewoka, Seminole County, Oklahoma; † 21 August 1998) was an American lawyer and 1988-1989 Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania. Stout was the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States as a judge and later the first woman who belonged to the Supreme Court of any state.

She was born under the name Juanita Louise Kidd. Her parents were Henry and Mary Kidd teacher at the local school. She grew up in poverty. First, she studied at the University of Iowa, where she graduated in 1939 as Bachelor of Arts. She then worked for some time as a music teacher, first in Seminole, then in Sand Springs, a suburb of Tulsa. There she also met her future husband, Charles Otis Stout ( 1907-1988 ). He taught Spanish there. The two married on June 23, 1943.

In 1943 she went to Indiana University to study law. There they made ​​their 1948 financial statements. She first worked at the school and from 1949 in Judge William H. Hastie. Starting in 1954, she practiced for five years. It was in 1959 elected as a judge in Philadelphia, as well as in 1969 and 1979. 1989 she retired.

Under President Kennedy in 1963 and 1967, goodwill ambassador in Kenya.