Attorney Ashleigh Mahala Dickerson of Anchorage and Wasilla, Alaska, is pictured here with me on her lovely wooded, 160-acre estate in 1994. Our family flew into Juneau, Alaska, following the National Bar Association Convention in Seattle, Washington, that year as phase 2 of our family vacation.
From Juneau, we rented a Chevy Lumina van, and took the ferry to Haines, whence we departed for Fairbanks and then Anchorage and back to Haines the ferry, Juneau and home.
While driving about Alaska, we visited this remarkable Bison-sister of the Howard Law School class of '42 or '43. At her invitation, we spent the night in her palatial 5-bedroom, indoor-heated-Olympic sized pool, residence. She regaled us with her life story; her being the first black this or that, i.e., member of the Alaska House of Representatives; first black female member of both the Alabama, Alaska, and Indiana bars; and childhood playmate and neighbor of iconic Rosa Parks!
What most blew me away, though, was that she had homesteaded her land, in the 1940s, while she was a single mother of twins, during which 5-year period she lived in a trailer with her boys, and her dogs, in the Alaskan wilderness! She has written her amazing autobiography and graciously mentions our family's visit in its epilogue.
Thank you, wife, Lyla, for finding this photo!
Monday, May 18, 2015
Attorney Ashleigh Mahala Dickerson of Alaska and me
Attorney Ashleigh Mahala Dickerson of Anchorage and Wasilla, Alaska, is pictured here with me on her lovely wooded, 160-acre estate in 1994. Our family flew into Juneau, Alaska, following the National Bar Association Convention in Seattle, Washington, that year as phase 2 of our family vacation.
From Juneau, we rented a Chevy Lumina van, and took the ferry to Haines, whence we departed for Fairbanks and then Anchorage and back to Haines the ferry, Juneau and home.
While driving about Alaska, we visited this remarkable Bison-sister of the Howard Law School class of '42 or '43. At her invitation, we spent the night in her palatial 5-bedroom, indoor-heated-Olympic sized pool, residence. She regaled us with her life story; her being the first black this or that, i.e., member of the Alaska House of Representatives; first black female member of both the Alabama, Alaska, and Indiana bars; and childhood playmate and neighbor of iconic Rosa Parks!
What most blew me away, though, was that she had homesteaded her land, in the 1940s, while she was a single mother of twins, during which 5-year period she lived in a trailer with her boys, and her dogs, in the Alaskan wilderness! She has written her amazing autobiography and graciously mentions our family's visit in its epilogue.
Thank you, wife, Lyla, for finding this photo!