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BALSA Forms
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ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE
BALSA FORMS AS VOICE FOR RACIAL EQUITY
The 1970s marked a milestone for Black women at UVA Law. Elaine Jones became the first Black woman to graduate from the Law School in 1970. The Black American Law Students Association (BALSA, now BLSA), a student advocacy organization in which women were heavily involved, formed the same year.
BALSA gave voice to critical racial and equity concerns, both at UVA Law and within the Charlottesville community. BALSA members advocated for greater transparency in the faculty hiring process and for greater recruitment efforts to increase the number of Black students at the Law School. At the time, UVA Law had no Black faculty members. Margaret Poles Spencer ’72, Bobby Vassar ’72, and Leonard McCants ’72 hosted a press conference in Clark Hall on March 21, 1972, to voice BALSA’s concern over the “negligence” in the Law School’s hiring practices. The next day, Larry Gibson, a graduate of Columbia Law School who had taught at UVA Law as an adjunct, was offered a position for the following semester. In retrospect, Spencer recalled, “We were trying to increase the numbers, obviously, of Black students. But we wanted the Law School to hire a Black professor. So I think we wanted a unified approach, an advocacy position, as a group.”
Recruitment of Black students was an equally important issue for BALSA. In the early 1970s, Spencer and her colleagues spent weekends traveling up and down the East Coast—from Boston to Atlanta—visiting colleges to encourage undergraduates to apply to law school, and if they did, to consider UVA Law.
Allison Burns ’22, BLSA President 2020-2021
From left to right, Margaret Poles Spencer ’72, Bobby Vassar ’72, and Leonard McCants ’72 at the 1972 press conference on recruiting Black faculty.
BALSA Officers, 1974-1975. Left to right: Ronald Reynolds Wesley ’75, Delores R. Boyd ’75, Kester I. Crosse ’75, Jane Freeman ’75, Dennis L. Montgomery ’75, and Sheila Jackson Lee ’75.
