Mighty Justice

Dovey Johnson Roundtree was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 17, 1914. She graduated from Spelman College in 1938 with a double major in English and biology. She spent three years teaching seventh and eighth grade in South Carolina. In 1942, she joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps as an inaugural member. She attained the rank of captain and recruited numerous African-American women for wartime Army service.

She graduated from Howard University's law school in 1950. She was admitted to the District of Columbia bar the next year. She helped secure a landmark ban on racial segregation in interstate bus travel in a case that originated in 1952. In 1962, she became the first African-American admitted to the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

She graduated from Howard University's divinity school and was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1961. She took a pulpit at Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church. She practiced law into her 80s and specialized in domestic and juvenile cases during her later years, while continuing her ministerial work, before retiring. She served as general counsel for the National Council of Negro Women and a special legal consultant for the national A.M.E. Church. She received the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association in 2000. Her memoir, Justice Older Than the Law, was written with Katie McCabe. Roundtree died on May 21, 2018 at the age of 104.

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