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A PBS Great American Read Top 100 PickWinner of the Pulitzer Prize * Winner of the National Book Award Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters-one a missionary in Africa an...

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A story about three women at NASA who helped launch John Glenn into orbit.

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NAWL's mission is to provide leadership, a collective voice, and essential resources to advance women in the legal profession and advocate for the equality of women under the law.

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They arrived wearing robes-their daughters and granddaughters in tow-to watch the making of feminist-icon Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. From El Paso to Oklahoma City, Charlottesville to Nashville, audiences are turning up to see the new CNN documentary on the big screen. Since its limited release on May 4, the film has grossed over $4 million on 375 screens. By Friday it will hit $4.5 million. (Only the 25 top-grossing docs of all time have crossed into double-digit numbers, with most staying under $1 million.)

"We are the documentary of the year," said Neal Block, president of distribution for Magnolia Pictures, the indie outfit that acquired the film, with partner Participant Media, at the Sundance Film Festival. "I think the film is an incredibly profound statement about hope in America and people are responding to that."

In a summer dominated by superhero movies, with little options available for the discerning moviegoer, RBG, from directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West, is providing a welcome respite. The film, produced by CNN, provides an intimate look into Ginsburg's personal and professional life, from her decades-long work on gender equality to her 56-year love affair with her husband, Martin Ginsburg. (He passed away in 2010.) The film also delves into her cultural import, from her hip, "Notorious R.B.G." moniker to Kate McKinnon's irreverent portrayal of her on Saturday Night Live, (which Ginsburg later impersonated). And then there is the priceless footage of her lifting weights at the gym and planking like a woman 30 years her junior.

"This documentary gives audiences amazing access to the 85-year-old justice, which is a very unusual thing," said Diane Weyermann, president of documentary films and television at Participant Media. "There is an intimacy here. You are just so close to the justice. The storytelling is resonating with people."

At the O Cinema in Miami Beach, the theater organized a post-film discussion session with women leaders in the community. The Austin Film Society organized its own photo-op station in the lobby for audiences to pose in RBG garb, while the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville hosted "every high-profile feminist in town" on opening night and has since held receptions for different groups, from high-school film clubs to political organizations seeking to elect progressive women to office.

RBG opened in 34 theaters in 10 cities and grossed well over $500,000-with an unbelievable per-screen average of $17,000. Magnolia, which initially planned to expand to 125 theaters on Mother's Day, instead added 145 theaters and grossed over $1 million that weekend. Its third week of release brought in an additional $1.2 million on 375 screens. The doc will be in 400 theaters this Memorial Day weekend. Magnolia just might get to its highest numbers ever with this film, thanks to the enthusiasm of women, both older and younger, who are showing up in droves. (Magnolia Pictures's top-grossing film is last year's documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, which earned over $7 million in total box office and was nominated for an Academy Award.)

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RBG, a Documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Has Become an Unlikely Box-Office Hit

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They arrived wearing robes-their daughters and granddaughters in tow-to watch the making of feminist-icon Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. From El Paso to Oklahoma City, Charlottesville to Nashville, audiences are turning up to see the new CNN documentary on the big screen.

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Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who brings a groundbreaking case to the U.S. Court of Appeals that overturns a century of gender discrimination.

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March is Women’s History Month – commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

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Women's Rights Movement Begins

The campaign for women's suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and '30s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had.

At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were proliferating across the United States- temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti- slavery organizations-and in many of these, women played a prominent role.

Meanwhile, many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the "Cult of True Womanhood": that is, the idea that the only "true" woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.

Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen of the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists-mostly women, but some men-gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights. They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Most of the delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, "that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that they believed women should have the right to vote.

Civil Rights and Women's Rights During the Civil War

During the 1850s, the women's rights movement gathered steam, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. Almost immediately after the war ended, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution raised familiar questions of suffrage and citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, extends the Constitution's protection to all citizens-and defines "citizens" as "male"; the 15th, ratified in 1870, guarantees Black men the right to vote.

Some women's suffrage advocates believed that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. As a result, they refused to support the 15th Amendment and even allied with racist Southerners who argued that white women's votes could be used to neutralize those cast by African Americans.

In 1869, a new group called the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Others argued that it was unfair to endanger Black enfranchisement by tying it to the markedly less popular campaign for female suffrage. This pro-15th-Amendment faction formed a group called the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for the franchise on a state-by-state basis.

Gallery: The Progressive Campaign for Suffrage

This animosity eventually faded, and in 1890 the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the organization's first president.

By then, the suffragists' approach had changed. Instead of arguing that women deserved the same rights and responsibilities as men because women and men were "created equal," the new generation of activists argued that women deserved the vote because they were different from men.

They could make their domesticity into a political virtue, using the franchise to create a purer, more moral "maternal commonwealth."

This argument served many political agendas: Temperance advocates, for instance, wanted women to have the vote because they thought it would mobilize an enormous voting bloc on behalf of their cause, and many middle-class white people were swayed once again by the argument that the enfranchisement of white women would "ensure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained."

Did you know? In 1923, the National Woman's Party proposed an amendment to the Constitution that prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment has never been ratified.

Winning the Vote at Last

Starting in 1910, some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century.

Still, southern and eastern states resisted. In 1916, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt unveiled what she called a "Winning Plan" to get the vote at last: a blitz campaign that mobilized state and local suffrage organizations all over the country, with a special focus on those recalcitrant regions.

Meanwhile, a splinter group called the National Woman's Party founded by Alice Paul focused on more radical, militant tactics-hunger strikes and White House pickets, for instance-aimed at winning dramatic publicity for their cause.

World War I slowed the suffragists' campaign but helped them advance their argument nonetheless: Women's work on behalf of the war effort, activists pointed out, proved that they were just as patriotic and deserving of citizenship as men.

Finally, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.

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Women's Suffrage - The U.S. Movement, Leaders & 19th Amendment

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The women's suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

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It's been 12 years since Julia Roberts starred in the Oscar-winning tour de force "Erin Brockovich". The film turned an unknown legal researcher into a 20th century icon by showcasing how her dogged persistence was the impelling force behind the largest medical settlement lawsuit in history. Since then, Erin hasn't been resting on her laurels... she continues to fight hard and win big!
This gutsy broad doesn't apologize for who she is. She has always loved going head to head with the big boys and was never intimated by their bravado. She learned how to come out on top from her tight-knit mid-western family in Lawrence, Kansas. Erin was the youngest child of an industrial engineer father and journalist mother. Her parents always believed that she could do anything she set her mind to if she learned to focus her amazing energy.

After a few years roaming around at various colleges, Erin decided that she wanted to be a California girl. She first landed a job as a management trainee for K-Mart but when that didn't make her swagger, she decided to study electrical engineering. But that wasn't enough for the Kansas beauty... on a fluke, she entered the Miss Pacific Coast beauty pageant... and, not surprising, won the title.

When she realized that beauty pageants weren't her thing, Erin, her husband and two children settled in Reno, Nevada. After divorcing, the single mother became a secretary at a brokerage firm where she met and married her second husband. But that marriage was short lived and the now mother of three was solo again.

Up until this point, Erin was the average divorced single mother trying to make a living... until she crossed paths with lawyer, Ed Masry, and changed the course of both their lives.

After being seriously injured in a traffic accident in Reno, Erin moved back to California's San Fernando Valley, and hired Masry & Vititoe to represent her. They won a small settlement but she still needed work so she got a job at their law firm as a file clerk, it was while organizing papers on a pro bono real estate case that Erin first found medical records that would explode into the largest direct action lawsuit in US history.

Erin's exhaustive investigation uncovered that Pacific Gas & Electric had been poisoning the small town of Hinkley's Water for over 30 years. It was because of Erin's unwavering tenacity that PG & E had been exposed for leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the ground water. This poison affected the health of the population of Hinkley. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spear-headed by Erin and Ed Masry, the utility giant was forced to pay out the largest toxic tort injury settlement in US history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

The story and eventual film helped make the "Erin Brockovich" a household name. Over time, Erin realized that she could use her notoriety to spread positive messages of personal empowerment and to encourage others to stand up and make a difference.
Then, for three seasons, Erin hosted the Lifetime series, "Final Justice With Erin Brockovich". The show celebrated everyday women who triumphed when faced with overwhelming adversity.Erin Brockovich has conquered all forms of media... Her first TV project was ABC's 2001 special "Challenge America With Erin Brockovich" where she helped motivate and organize the rebuilding of a dilapidated park in downtown Manhattan. This show is best described as "Extreme Make-Over Home Edition" on steroids.
Erin then dominated the world of publishing with her New York Times Business best-seller, "Take It From Me. Life's A Struggle, But You Can Win".

Because of her fighting spirit, Erin has become the champion of countless women and men. She is this generations, "Dear Abby" and in fact receives thousands of "Dear Erin" letters and emails each year from people who are begging for help and support in their own personal struggles. Erin proudly answers every one of them.

As President of Brockovich Research & Consulting, she is currently involved in numerous environmental projects worldwide.

Erin is one of the most requested speakers on the international lecture circuit and travels the world for personal appearances.

Erin Brockovich is a true American hero who's icon status and "stick-to-it-iveness" only fuels her determination to expose injustice and lend her voice to those who do not have one.

She has requests for her help in ground water contamination complaints in every state of the US, Australia and other international hot spots. She is currently working on cases in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri.

Erin lives in Southern California with her husband, three children and 5 Pomeranians and admits to one guilty pleasure... shopping!

When KMBC broke the story about a cluster of brain tumors in Cameron, it drew national attention. One of those taking notice was well-known environmental activist Erin Brockovich.

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It's been 12 years since Julia Roberts starred in the Oscar-winning tour de force "Erin Brockovich". The film turned an unknown legal researcher into a 20th century icon by showcasing how her dogged persistence was the impelling force behind the largest medical settlement lawsuit in history.

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A flamboyant law firm secretary works tirelessly to gain justice for a small town wrecked by a utility company's pollution.

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Legally Blonde (2001) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

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Rosa Parks' Early Life

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona McCauley, to Pine Level, Alabama, at age 2 to reside with Leona's parents. Her brother, Sylvester, was born in 1915, and shortly after that her parents separated.

Did you know? When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, it wasn't the first time she'd clashed with driver James Blake. Parks stepped onto his very crowded bus on a chilly day 12 years earlier, paid her fare at the front, then resisted the rule in place for Black people to disembark and re-enter through the back door. She stood her ground until Blake pulled her coat sleeve, enraged, to demand her cooperation. Parks left the bus rather than give in.

Rosa's mother was a teacher, and the family valued education. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11 and eventually attended high school there, a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers' College for Negroes. She left at 16, early in 11th grade, because she needed to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother. In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who worked as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP). He supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school diploma, which she ultimately did the following year.

Rosa Parks: Roots of Activism

Raymond and Rosa, who worked as a seamstress, became respected members of Montgomery's large African American community. Co-existing with white people in a city governed by " Jim Crow " (segregation) laws, however, was fraught with daily frustrations: Black people could attend only certain (inferior) schools, could drink only from specified water fountains and could borrow books only from the "Black" library, among other restrictions.

Although Raymond had previously discouraged her out of fear for her safety, in December 1943, Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and became chapter secretary. She worked closely with chapter president Edgar Daniel (E.D.) Nixon. Nixon was a railroad porter known in the city as an advocate for Black people who wanted to register to vote, and also as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Is Arrested

On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Black residents of Montgomery often avoided municipal buses if possible because they found the Negroes-in-back policy so demeaning. Nonetheless, 70 percent or more riders on a typical day were Black, and on this day Rosa Parks was one of them.

Segregation was written into law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for Black citizens. However, it was only by custom that bus drivers had the authority to ask a Black person to give up a seat for a white rider. There were contradictory Montgomery laws on the books: One said segregation must be enforced, but another, largely ignored, said no person (white or Black) could be asked to give up a seat even if there were no other seat on the bus available.

Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated "white" section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the "colored" section to stand, in effect adding another row to the "white" section. The three others obeyed. Parks did not.

"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired," wrote Parks in her autobiography, "but that isn't true. I was not tired physically... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Eventually, two police officers approached the stopped bus, assessed the situation and placed Parks in custody.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Although Parks used her one phone call to contact her husband, word of her arrest had spread quickly and E.D. Nixon was there when Parks was released on bail later that evening. Nixon had hoped for years to find a courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity to become the plaintiff in a case that might become the test of the validity of segregation laws. Sitting in Parks' home, Nixon convinced Parks-and her husband and mother-that Parks was that plaintiff. Another idea arose as well: The Black population of Montgomery would boycott the buses on the day of Parks' trial, Monday, December 5. By midnight, 35,000 flyers were being mimeographed to be sent home with Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott.

On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. Meanwhile, Black participation in the boycott was much larger than even optimists in the community had anticipated. Nixon and some ministers decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-new to Montgomery and just 26 years old-as the MIA's president.

As appeals and related lawsuits wended their way through the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Montgomery Bus Boycott engendered anger in much of Montgomery's white population as well as some violence, and Nixon's and Dr. King's homes were bombed. The violence didn't deter the boycotters or their leaders, however, and the drama in Montgomery continued to gain attention from the national and international press.

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional; the boycott ended December 20, a day after the Court's written order arrived in Montgomery. Parks-who had lost her job and experienced harassment all year-became known as "the mother of the civil rights movement."

Rosa Parks's Life After the Boycott

Facing continued harassment and threats in the wake of the boycott, Parks, along with her husband and mother, eventually decided to move to Detroit, where Parks' brother resided. Parks became an administrative aide in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. in 1965, a post she held until her 1988 retirement. Her husband, brother and mother all died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, to serve Detroit's youth.

In the years following her retirement, she traveled to lend her support to civil-rights events and causes and wrote an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story. In 1999, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian. (Other recipients have included George Washington, Thomas Edison, Betty Ford and Mother Teresa.) When she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation's history to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Rosa Parks: Bus Boycott, Civil Rights & Facts | HISTORY

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Rosa Parks (1913-2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Betty Anne puts herself through college and law school to get the conviction of her older brother Kenny get overturned. 

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Betty Anne puts herself through college and law school to get the conviction of her older brother Kenny get overturned. 

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Conviction is a 2010 American biographical legal drama film directed by Tony Goldwyn, written by Pamela Gray, and starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. The film premiered on September 11, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the US on October 15, 2010.

Betty Anne Waters' life revolves around her brother Kenneth, who is now in prison for murder. Despite Kenny's knack for getting in trouble, they have always been close. After the murder of Katherina Reitz Brow on May 21, 1980, in Ayer, Massachusetts, Kenny is initially taken in for questioning by Sergeant Nancy Taylor, but released. Two years later, based on new testimony from two witnesses, Kenny is arrested and tried. The evidence presented at Kenny's trial is entirely circumstantial, but he is convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three main witnesses against him are Sergeant Taylor, his ex-wife Brenda, and ex-girlfriend Roseanna.

Three years later, Betty Anne lives with her husband, Rick and two sons, Richard and Ben. She is frantic that she has not heard from Kenny, who calls her every week from prison, and finally discovers that he tried to commit suicide. Betty Anne decides to go back to school and become a lawyer so she can exonerate him, but her husband is skeptical and unsupportive, and eventually they split up and later divorce. As Betty Anne struggles with being a working mother attending law school, flashbacks reveal that her mother was callous and uncaring, forcing Kenny and Betty Anne to fend for themselves. The two were very close, but frequently got into trouble, and were eventually taken away from their mother and sent to separate foster homes.

Betty Anne continues to visit Kenny in prison, working in a bar while going to school, but her busy schedule causes her to miss a planned outing with her sons, who decide they would be better off living with their father. Struggling in school, demoralized and exhausted, Betty Anne stops going to classes, until a friend from school, Abra, comes to her house and prods her to just get up, get dressed, and get back to class.

In a study group, Betty Anne learns about the new field of DNA testing and realizes that this could be the key to overturning Kenny's conviction, as only blood types had been matched at the time of the trial. She contacts attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project. The backlog of cases will mean waiting at least 18 months unless she can pass the bar exam and find the blood evidence from Kenny's trial herself to have it tested. She passes the bar exam and begins working hard to get her brother out of jail. At first she is stonewalled, then told the evidence was destroyed, but she refuses to give up, and she and Abra embark on an odyssey to recover any evidence that might still be stored away somewhere.

In the process, Betty Anne learns that Nancy Taylor was fired from the police department for fabricating evidence in another case, which deepens Betty Anne's suspicions about Kenny's conviction and the evidence presented at trial. She is told that the evidence has been moved to the courthouse but after 10 years it was destroyed. Refusing to give up, she and Abra travel to Ayer and personally ask the courthouse supervisor to look through the records and the evidence is found. The DNA results come back and establish that the blood was not Kenny's. Betty Anne and Kenny are overjoyed anticipating his release, but Martha Coakley, of the District Attorney's office, refuses to vacate the conviction, claiming that there was still enough evidence to convict Kenny as an accomplice. Kenny is convinced that no matter what, the authorities will find a way to keep him in prison to avoid admitting their mistake. Betty Anne is heartbroken again, but refuses to give up after Scheck advises her that their discovery not only proves Kenny's innocence, but also that the main witnesses against him were lying.

Betty Anne, Abra, and Scheck visit the other two main trial witnesses, Kenny's ex-wife and his ex-girlfriend. Both tearfully confess that Sergeant Taylor coerced them into perjuring themselves at Kenny's trial. With an affidavit from Kenny's ex-wife and the DNA evidence, Kenny's conviction is vacated and he is freed from prison in June 2001. Betty Anne is able to persuade his daughter, Mandy, whom he had not had any contact with since she was a small child, that he never stopped trying to reach out to her while he was in prison. He is able to reconnect with his daughter, and is reunited with his sister and her sons.

The epilogue states that Betty Anne continues to work at the bar as well as with the Innocence Project to prevent wrongful convictions. She also won a major settlement against the Ayer police department for Kenny's conviction although Nancy Taylor (whom she also won the settlement against) was never charged because of the statute of limitations had expired. The real killer of Katherina Brow has never been found.

Production began in February 2009, in Dexter, Michigan. Filming also took place in Ann Arbor, Jackson, Howell, Pinckney, Chelsea and Ypsilanti. In Ypsilanti, filming took place in the historic Depot Town at a restaurant called Sidetrack Bar & Grill. In Howell, filming took place at the Livingston County Courthouse, along Dearborn Street at Cole's Elevator, and at the Howell Village Market (formerly Sefa's Super Market). The script was written by Pamela Gray. The poster was released June 21, 2010.

The film score was composed by composer Paul Cantelon.

The end title song is "Heaven & Hell" by Cantelon's band, Wild Colonials. The song is a re-recording of the track that first appeared on their debut album, Fruit of Life and was released as a stand-alone single at the time of the film's release.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 191 reviews, with an average score of 68%. The critical consensus reads "Less compelling - and more manipulative - than it should be, Conviction benefits from its compelling true story and a pair of solid performances from Swank and Rockwell." Another review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Martha Coakley, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who was portrayed in the film, commented after seeing a pre-screening on October 12, 2010, that it was a compelling film but there were legal inaccuracies and temporal exaggerations. Family members of Katharina Brow, the murder victim, have criticized the film company and Hilary Swank for failing to consult the family on the movie's depiction of their mother. Kenny died in September 2001, six months after his exoneration, due to a head injury he sustained in an accident.

Larrabee, John; Olivo, Russ (January 21, 2010). "Reluctant Hero". Rhode Island Monthly.

Stockman, Farah; Daniel, Mac (March 16, 2001). "After 18 years in prison, 'It's great to be free': Ex-inmate savors the world outside". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners. Archived from the original on March 18, 2018.

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Conviction is a 2010 American biographical legal drama film directed by Tony Goldwyn, written by Pamela Gray, and starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. The film premiered on September 11, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the US on October 15, 2010.

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Recognizing The Roles Of Women Throughout American History | TODAY

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Politicon brings the brilliant team of political and legal masterminds together for Politicon's #SistersInLaw.

Joyce Vance, Jill Wine-Banks, Barb McQuade, and Kimberly Atkins will pull back the curtain on how our government actually works, take on the corrupt, share their wisdom and give us their rulings on the latest in politics, law, and culture.

Politicon brings the brilliant team of political and legal masterminds together for Politicon's #SistersInLaw.

Joyce Vance, Jill Wine-Banks, Barb McQuade, and Kimberly Atkins will pull back the curtain on how our government actually works, take on the corrupt, share their wisdom and give us their rulings on the latest in politics, law, and culture.

You make me want to know more

Thanks for breaking it all down so we can understand and making us better.

Love their explanations and knowledge

I learn so much from these ladies. Strongly recommend this podcast.

Justice Brown Jackson

Sisters is the most informative and entertaining podcast. I listen every week and learn something new each time. I absolutely love and admire all four of these intelligent women and thank them for taking the time every week to bring us a smart and honest take on current issues.

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Politicon brings the brilliant team of political and legal masterminds together for Politicon's #SistersInLaw. Joyce Vance, Jill Wine-Banks, Barb McQuade, and Kimberly Atkins will pull back the curtain on how our government actually works, take on the corrupt, share their wisdom and give us their r...

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If you haven't heard already, the notorious RBG is coming out with an memoir, and it's sure to be the read of the year for every feminist with a passion for justice. But, as we all know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't the only women in the world of law. She may or may not be the most awesome woman in law today, but there are many other female lawyers and judges who paved the way for RBG, or who've been influenced by her career.

After all, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a long history of advocating for women's rights, and she wouldn't want her other legally enlightened ladies to go unnoticed. I mean, there are two other women up there on the Supreme Court right now. And, when asked how many women should ideally be on the supreme court, RBG said, "Nine." There were nine men up there for years and everyone was cool with it.

Women have been making legal history for a long time. The first women to ever argue before the Supreme Court was actually a poet and ex-slave as well as a fiercely talented orator, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. So if you're an RBG fan looking to read up on other incredible women in American law, here are a few books to get you started:

Elena Kagan is sometimes considered a "wild card" on the Supreme Court (she's also a kick ass alum of my high school, but that's probably less important). This biography covers Kagan's life and achievements, from her days at Princeton to her legal career to her seat on the Supreme Court. She may be the newest justice (for the moment), but she's certainly a huge inspiration when it comes to forging an independent, wildly successful career in law.
Click here to buy.
If you just can't wait to read a female Supreme Court justice's memoir, then check out Sonia Sotomayor's My Beloved World. She's the first Hispanic justice to serve on the federal bench, and her memoir is beautifully written. Sotomayor tells a story of coming-of-age and self discovery: she grew up in a housing project in the Bronx and made it to the Supreme Court. Her book reflects her own honesty and warmth, and her writing is both intelligent and easy to grasp even without a law degree.
Click here to buy.
3. Out of Order by Sandra Day O'Connor

Love her or hate her, but Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Her politics might be far more conservative than RBG's, but both are tenacious women who made it to the highest legal perch in the country. And O'Connor's book, Out of Order, is an invitation behind the scenes at the Supreme Court, full of stories on the institution's history and inner workings, as well as her own personal insights.
Click here to buy. The Supreme Court isn't the only place for amazing women in American law. Barbara Jordan was the first African American on the Texas senate since reconstruction. She was the first black woman from the South to serve in Congress. She delivered the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She was a lawyer, civil rights activist, politician, and all around powerful woman who re-shaped America's political landscape. And if all that doesn't make you want to learn more, just look at how awesome she looks wrapped in that flag on the cover. Pretty freaking awesome. Click here to buy.
The cover might be far less dramatic, but Mastering American Indian Law is written by two impressive women in the world of Native American law. Stacy Leeds was a Supreme Court Justice for the Cherokee Nation, and she's the first Native American woman to serve as dean of a law school. Angelique Townsend Eaglewoman is a professor of law who advocates for diversity in law schools, and her goal as a writer is to bring an understanding of Native American law to a wider audience.
Click here to buy.
6. Mr. and Mrs. Prince by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Anthony Gerzina

Lucy Terry Prince was stolen from Africa sold into slavery as a baby. As an adult, however, her future husband bought her freedom, and together they raised six children and argued for African American rights long before the Civil War. Not only was Mrs. Prince the first African American poet in recorded history, she was also the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court (she won, of course). Mr. and Mrs. Prince is the story of one of America's first power couples, and how they fought for (and won) their legal rights time and time again.
Click here to buy.
Clara Foltz was the first woman to be admitted to the California Bar, and the first person to suggest the position of Public Defender (seriously, no one had thought of it before her). She fought for women's rights, raised five children as a single mother, wore some very impressive sleeves, and faced a tremendous amount of prejudice for her gender. Despite it all, her legal contributions were impressive, and she created a precedent for many female lawyers to follow in her footsteps.
Click here to buy. Image: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States/Wikimedia Commons

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If you haven't heard already, the notorious RBG is coming out with an memoir, and it's sure to be the read of the year for every feminist with a passion for justice. But, as we all know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't the only women in the world of law....

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In Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers, award-winning legal historian Jill Norgren curates the oral histories of one hundred extraordinary American women lawyers who changed the profession of law. Many of these stories are being told for the first time. As adults these women were on the front lines fighting for access to law schools and good legal careers. They challenged established rules and broke the law's glass ceiling.Norgren uses these interviews to describe the profound changes that began in the late 1960s, interweaving social and legal history with the women's individual experiences.

In 1950, when many of the subjects of this book were children, the terms of engagement were clear: only a few women would be admitted each year to American law schools and after graduation their professional opportunities would never equal those open to similarly qualified men. Harvard Law School did not even begin to admit women until 1950. At many law schools, well into the 1970s, men told female students that they were taking a place that might be better used by a male student who would have a career, not babies.

In 2005 the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession initiated a national oral history project named the Women Trailblazers in the Law initiative: One hundred outstanding senior women lawyers were asked to give their personal and professional histories in interviews conducted by younger colleagues. The interviews, made available to the author, permit these women to be written into history in their words, words that evoke pain as well as celebration, humor, and somber reflection. These are women attorneys who, in courtrooms, classrooms, government agencies, and NGOs have rattled the world with insistent and successful demands to reshape their profession and their society. They are women who brought nothing short of a revolution to the profession of law.

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Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law

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Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law [Norgren, Jill] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law