The 1960s

The Sixties

WE’RE HERE BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE LAWYERS.

Even as the demographics of the Law School began to shift in the 1960s due to the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the women’s liberation movement, male students remained the clear majority. Only a handful of women were admitted each year until the end of the decade. Nancy Buc ’69 was one of eight women in her class and described the Law School as “not uniformly welcoming.” As women carried on with classes and extracurriculars, they faced a common belief that female students were taking up seats that men deserved. In time, Buc learned to be blunt with those who objected to female students: “Look, we’re here because we want to be lawyers.”

The first-year law class in 1966 included eight women, a record for enrollment at the time. From left to right: Jean Carr, Nancy Mattox, Mary Voce, Martha Lou Dantzler, Mary Jane Angus, Nancy Buc, Elinor Gammon, and Katy Lowden. Virginia Law Weekly, September 29, 1966.

In 1934, the Law School moved from Minor Hall to Clark Hall (pictured in background). The Law School moved to North Grounds, its current location, in 1974.

1960s

ELAINE JONES ENROLLS

Elaine Jones ’70 entered the Law School in 1967 and was UVA Law’s first Black female student. She was one of eleven women and one of two Black students in her class. In a 2006 interview, Jones recalled:

“It was not a welcoming environment for women... and the whole idea of a Black woman was just so far off the charts.”

For Jones, the Law School’s silence in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., in the spring of 1968, further signified the covert discrimination toward Black students at UVA:

“I came to school that day... no one said a word. Not a student, not a professor, no one said one word. Nothing. And at the end of the day I went to Jimmy [James Benton Jr. ’70]—who was the other Black person in my class—and I said ‘Jimmy, do they know? Do they know?’ Of course they knew. Of course they knew, but in many of their minds King was a rabble-rouser.”

ADMISSIONS AND THE DRAFT

The Law School’s admissions pattern began to shift in 1968. That year, the U.S. ended draft deferments for male graduate students. To compensate, UVA Law increased class sizes and began admitting more women. Whereas the first-year class in 1967 had 11 women students out of a class of 255 (4%), the entering class in 1968 had a record 24 female students out of 303 (8%). Nevertheless, female students and people of color remained the clear minority. The next decade would see substantial student-led activism to increase the number of women and people of color in the student body and on the faculty. This work would build off the trailblazers of the 1960s.

“I HAD TO THINK TO MYSELF, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT YOU HERE. THERE ARE PROFESSORS WHO WANT YOU HERE.

THERE’S AN ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE WHO VOTED YOU IN ... SO JUST AS

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT YOU HERE, THERE ARE THOSE WHO DO.” —Elaine Jones ’70