10 questions. A Birth and Many Firsts
| Author | Jenny B. Davis |
| Pages | 12-13 |
10 QUESTIONS
12 || ABA JOURNAL APRIL 2018
Opening Statements
THERE’S A BABY CRIB NEXT TO
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s desk.
It’s for Burke’s granddaughter—she
enjoys bringing the busy toddler up
to her Los Angeles law oce whi le she
completes work stemming from her
arbitration practice or her position
on the Amtrak board of d irectors.
Blending work, family and succes s
is nothing new for Burke, 85. For
decades, she balance d a high-profile,
barrier-break ing career as a politi-
cian and big-firm partner w ith
the demands of parenting. Case
in point: In 1973, she became the
first Afr ican-American woma n from
California to ser ve in the U.S. House
of Representatives, and that sa me
year she became the firs t member
of Congress to give bir th while in oce. She also wa s
the first congresswoma n to be granted mater nity leave—
a benefit that at the time had to be spe cifically authoriz ed
by the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Across your car eer, you’ve consistently been a first .
Was that ever intimidat ing?
No, I think you just decide what you think you c an
do and how you can contribute. You don’t think about
whether or not you are the first. That’s what you find out
later. It’s whether you have the ambition to do it.
You went to law school in the 1950s, a time when
there were very few women of color enrolle d, and job
opportunit ies were very limit ed. How did you end up
deciding to follow that c hallenging path?
I was a public administ ration major, and my college
counselor said, “I don’t know what to do with you. I don’t
think there are ver y many women who are city manag ers,
and I don’t think anyone will appoint a black woma n
to be mayor.” He a lso said, “If you become an attor ney,
who will come to you?” But I knew an A frican-Amer ican
woman who was a lawyer—I had been t o her home—and
I knew she was doing pretty wel l. I thought, if I had the
ability, I should be able to become a lawyer and be suc-
cessful, to o.
What sparked that i nitial dr ive to be a lawyer?
When I was growi ng up in Los Angeles, Asian s
couldn’t own property, and in many ar eas of LA,
Africa n-Americans couldn’t buy propert y. You couldn’t
buy homes. I was very aware of thi s, and my mother
was aware of it. There were ac tually covenants in t he
deeds that said “Th is property can only b e occupied by
someone of the Caucasian race ,” and this prevented us
from moving. We lived in a not-so-
desirable area and the schools were
not great, and we wante d to move.
Then there was a case in t he U.S.
Supreme Court [Shelley v. Kraemer
(1948)]. Loren Miller was t he attor-
ney, and he was able to set aside these
restrictive covena nts. I think ever y
Africa n-American in the U.S. wa s
aware of this decision. I happened to
know his nephew; and when I was
15, I was invited to a bi rthday party
at his nephew’s house. I saw his uncle
sitting in a librar y surrounded by all
these books and I said, “ That’s going
to be me.” And I never looked back.
I had already sa id, “I am going to be
like Loren Miller and have al l these
important cas es,” but when I saw
him and those books, I k new there was nothing that
was going to keep me from going to law school.
Throughout your car eer, you’ve s erved in local,
state and nationa l government and have seen so
many changes in polit ics, both positive a nd negative.
With the internet a nd the pervasivenes s of criticism
and just nast iness, do you thin k it’s harder to be a
politician the se days? Do you have any advice for
women in politics?
Politics is dierent these days. It was bad w hen I
was there, but it’s really tough now. I would say: Be
sure your family ca n take it. Don’t destroy yourself and
your family. That’s what I said to my daughter, who is
in the [California] legislature. She has seen how it’s
dicult, but she is not a wilt ing violet. It bothers her,
but she is strong. She has the will to over take it.
It’s become much more common to see women
running aga inst women and race s that involve
women of color. How do you feel when you see
this repre sentation?
We are in a position where we have many, many
experienced and eec tive women—white, African-
American, L atino—and they are prepared to r un, they
know how to put together a campaign, a nd they know
how to put money together. Back when we were attempt-
ing to get into public oce, we were very sa ddened that
we had to be the only ones around. W hen I was in the
state legislatur e, there were only three of us, and when I
was in the House, there were only 19 out of 435. But it’s
a new day, and the dynamics are di erent. You’re going
to see more women emerge—this is what we fought for.
Let’s talk about your t ime in the House, when you
had your daughter. You were not only the first to have
A Birth and Many Firsts
LA lawyer and former congresswoman blazed a trail for women and minorities
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
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