RCLL April 2024 CLE

Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Ramsey County Law Library currently hosts one virtual continuing legal education (CLE) course on the second Wednesday of each month. For April 2024 our presenter will be Marshall Tanick of Meyer Njus Tanick. He will present on the topic: The (Updated) Law & Lore of Baseball in Minnesota. Please note that this month’s CLE will be hosted via Zoom.

CLE Details & Registration info:

Sign up for this CLE (one standard credit pending) using the registration link below.

Register for Ramsey County CLE: April 10, 2024

04/10/2024, 12:00 PM – 04/10/2024, 1:00 PM
Time zone: (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

Please register and join this event. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Presentation title: The (Updated) Law & Lore of Baseball in Minnesota

Speaker biography:

Marshall H. Tanick is a Twin Cities Constitutional law attorney with the law firm of MEYER NJUS TANICK with offices in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Louis Park as well as other Upper Midwest cities. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Certified as a Senior Civil Trial Specialist. He writes and speaks frequently on a variety of legal topics as well as annual Supreme Court reviews and previews.

If you have questions about the session, please contact the law library at 651-266-8391.

See you there!

 

Celebrating Sara!

Please join us in congratulating Sara Galligan on her retirement.  Sara has been the Director of the Ramsey County Law Library since 2008, and she leaves the library and Ramsey County a better place.

For the past almost fourteen years, Sara has strived to make the law library responsive to the needs of Ramsey County residents.  She has forged relationships with groups outside of the law library, including the Ramsey County Public Library, Ramsey County District Court, Minnesota Justice Foundation, the Ramsey County Bar Association, the Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, and the Volunteer Lawyers Network to establish policies and develop resources that increase access to justice.

For example, Sara managed two clinics at the law library.  The Housing/Conciliation Court clinic is open to Ramsey County residents or those with a case pending in Ramsey County.  The law library also hosts the Criminal Law Clinic, which is open to anyone living in Minnesota.  In addition, the law library provides space for Ramsey County’s Criminal Expungement clinic, which suspended operations during the pandemic, but hopes to open later this year.

Sara was also the impetus that created the law library’s Antiracism Booklist, and continues to advocate for collecting titles that help readers learn about cultures and life experiences different from their own.  This forward-thinking attitude is also reflected in the library’s collection development policy, which was approved by the Law Library Board of Trustees last December. 

Sara’s work in bringing access to justice issues to the forefront was recognized nationally when she chaired a special committee of the American Association of Law Libraries that created a report on Law Libraries and Access to Justice.  She is also an active member of the Self-Represented Litigation Network, and with her colleagues created a story map 2019, which shows how self-represented litigants are helped by law libraries

In addition, her leadership skills have been recognized not once, but twice by the Minnesota legal community.  Minnesota Lawyer sponsors several annual awards to recognize outstanding members of the profession.  In 2003, Sara was recognized as an “Up and Coming” attorney.  This award honors newer attorneys to the Minnesota Bar who have significant professional accomplishment, leadership service to the community and the profession.  In 2015, Sara was once again honored, this time as an “Unsung Legal Hero.”  The Unsung Legal Hero Award is presented to the state’s most talented and dedicated legal support professionals. 

In 2019, under Sara’s leadership, the Ramsey County Bar Association honored the Law Library with the Liberty Bell Award.  This award is presented annually to honor one non-lawyer’s activities that greatly benefit our legal community and our Ramsey County citizens by increasing the effective functioning of our government and courts through understanding, encouragement, and respect for our institutions and the rule of law. 

The law library is going to miss Sara, not just for her leadership but also for the example she has set for other law librarians in Minnesota.  Congratulations Sara!  All the best for a well-earned retirement.

 

Upcoming CLE Programs

Greetings readers of the Ramsey County Law Library Blog.  Today we’d like to call your attention to two upcoming CLE programs you might want to attend. 

On Tuesday March 22, the Minnesota TriBar Association is presenting “Bartenders Wanted | Women Need Not Apply.”  The speaker is the Honorable Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthman.  Judge Guthman will present on the life and legal case of Clara Anderson, a woman bartender in 1940’s St. Paul.  After the St. Paul City Council enacted an ordinance that prevented women from lucrative bartending positions, she went to court.  Her legal battle lasted three long years.  To find out if she prevailed in her case, consider attending this CLE.  Registration is open until March 20.

Judge Guthman also authored an article about Clara Anderson’s life and legal battle.  This article was published in the Spring 2020 issue of Ramsey County History.

On March 30, the Ramsey County Bar Association and the Law Library are co-sponsoring a CLE to help attorneys increase their research skills with the LexisNexis Digital Library.  The presenter, Kaitlyn Forsyth of LexisNexis, will show users that the library is more than just a book-lending platform.  The digital library can be a new research tool to aid legal research and information organization.  Registration for this program is open now and is free to Ramsey County Bar Association members. 

Bartenders Wanted | Women Need Not Apply
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Cost: MSBA/HCBA/RCBA Members: $15; Non-Members: $50

CLE Credits:
1.0 Elimination of Bias CLE Credits | Event Code: 445931

Deadline to register: March 20, 2022. To register after that time, email the program manager.

This presentation will be presented remotely.  Connection information will be mailed to the registrant the day before the program.

LexisNexis Digital Library Training

Date:  Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Time:  12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Cost: RCBA Member: Free; Non-RCBA Member:  $25

CLE Credits:
1.0 Standard CLE Credit

Deadline to register: March 28, 2022. 

This presentation will be presented remotely.  Connection information will be mailed to the registrant the day before the program.

 

Happy National Library Week 2021!

To celebrate National Library Week, we would like to tell you a little bit about a local library.  Not ours – I’m sure you know quite a bit about the services we offer.  The library you should know about is the George Latimer Central Library, located just one block west of the courthouse.

The George Latimer Central Library (“Library”) is the main branch of the St. Paul Public Library system.  It has over 350,000 books and other materials.  The Library was established in 1882 with a collection of over 8000 books.  In 1900, the library moved to a space on 7th Street, but community initiative and an unfortunate fire in 1915 spurred on construction for a new library. 

The building’s architect was Electus Litchfield, a prominent New York architect who is also known for designing the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn and Bellevue Hospital in New York.  The cost for building the new library, including the research library named after notable railroad baron and philanthropist James J. Hill, cost $1.5 million dollars.  The building was completed in 1917 and has been there, across the street from Rice Park, ever since.

In 2014, the library was renamed the George Latimer Central Library, honoring a former mayor of St. Paul.  Mr. Latimer was born in Schenectady, New York and was a graduate of Columbia Law School.  He came to St. Paul in 1963 and practiced law until 1976 when he was elected mayor.  Mr. Latimer served as mayor from 1976-1990, and later served on the Library Board of Trustees from 1998-2012, and as chair from 2008-2012.  In May 2014, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced the renaming of the library, which was received with much enthusiasm.  As Kit Hadley, the former Director of the St. Paul Public Library said,

We are honored to have Mayor Latimer’s name placed on Central Library.  All of Saint Paul has benefitted from his tireless work, from education to affordable housing to helping those in need. There is no more fitting name for this library given Mayor Latimer’s work with the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and the fact that libraries are active centers for community engagement.

Happy National Library Week everyone! 

 

Dr. William D. Green
Professor of History, Augsburg College

As Black History Month comes to an end, it is the high honor of the Ramsey County Law Library to recognize Dr. William D. Green for his scholarly research and captivating publications about Minnesota African American history.  The winner of two Hognander Awards, Dr. Green has published many works that describe nineteenth and early twentieth century events and individuals that highlight Minnesota’s African American heritage.  The two books that received the Hognander award are The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits of Black Opportunity in Minnesota 1860-1876and Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912. The esteemed Hognander award is given biennially as part of the Minnesota Book Awards.  The award is supported by the Hognander Family Foundation, and it recognizes and celebrates the most outstanding scholarly work about Minnesota history published in the previous two years.

Dr. Green also showcases his scholarly endeavors through his fascinating, live storytelling. The law library collaborated with the Ramsey County Bar Association in October 2020 to present Dr. Green’s program about Nellie Francis, featuring his remarkable story of an African American suffragette. The October virtual program was attended by hundreds of attorneys. Dr. Green not only drew from his expansive research about Ms. Francis, but he also provided an enthralling tale through his palpable regard for Ms. Francis and her accomplished life.  Nellie Francis: Fighting for Racial Justice and Women’s Equality in Minnesota was published in January 2021.

In addition to Dr. Green’s books listed above, the law library also has A Peculiar Imbalance: The Rise and Fall of Racial Equality in Early Minnesota available for loan.  However, his research, scholarship, and published work goes far beyond the titles mentioned here.  For Minnesotans and readers around the U.S., Dr. Green’s contributions to African American history and research are a gift for all.

 

The biography of an extraordinary woman

Nellie Francis

Regular readers of our blog will remember the announcement last fall regarding a CLE about Nellie Francis, a local civil rights activist who was instrumental in passing an anti-lynching law in Minnesota and who also worked to bring the right to vote to women.  We are happy to report that the biography of Nellie Francis, written by Dr. William D. Green, Professor of History at Augsburg University, has been published and is available at the Ramsey County Law Library.  This extensively researched book chronicles Nellie’s story, telling us about her family, her friends, her activism, and historical context of the events in her life that influenced her. 

Of particular interest is the information written about her family.  Her grandmother, Nellie Allen Seay, for whom she was named, was a strong influence in her life – so much so that after her husband died of yellow fever, she moved back to Tennessee to live with her.  Dr. Green also detailed information about other family members that were influential in her life, such as her mother, sister, and of course, her husband Billy Francis.  Billy, like Nellie, was heavily involved with the local community, and was friends with Fredrick McGhee, a prominent St. Paul attorney.  Billy eventually took over McGhee’s law practice when McGhee died in 1912.

In addition to telling Nellie’s story through the lives of her family, Dr. Green also writes about the people in her community.  Nellie was a member of many organizations, such as the Everywoman Suffrage Club, the Red Cross Suffrage Group, the Booklover’s Club and Social and Literacy Society of Pilgrim Church, and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, to name a few.  But Professor Green also tells the reader about other prominent people she worked with in these groups.   Not only did Nellie meet and work with both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, she met several U.S. presidents, including President Taft and President Harding.  But she also worked with other women, like Clara Ueland and Mary Church Terrell, on civil rights issues and the women’s suffrage movement.

Nellie’s story is also told in the context of major events in Minnesota, the most infamous being the lynching of three Black men in Duluth in 1920.  The next year, she helped to enact the state’s anti-lynching legislation, which was passed on April 20, 1921.  This well-researched book also describes the start of the restrictive covenants that were cropping up in Minneapolis and St. Paul and how it impacted Nellie and her husband when they tried to buy a house in a White neighborhood.  (Neighbors offered them a thousand dollars to not move in.  They did anyway.)  

To learn about a remarkable woman and learn more about Minnesota history, as well as the history of important African Americans in Minnesota, please do read this new book, Nellie Francis:  Fighting for racial justice and women’s equality in Minnesota by Dr. William D. Green.  This book is available at the Ramsey County Law Library.

 

Nellie Francis and the right to vote

Picture of Nellie Francis

Nellie Francis, photo courtesy of The Appeal newspaper, via Newspapers.com https://www.newspapers.com/image/49700184/, circa 1921

 

Please join us (virtually) for a CLE to learn about Nellie Francis, a key activist in the suffragist movement in Minnesota.  Dr. William D. Green of Augsburg University will speak on her remarkable life and achievements.

Thursday, October 1, 2020
12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
1.0 Elimination of Bias Credit
FREE for all attendees
This event is virtual only.

Ms. Francis was born in Nashville in 1874 and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota with her family when she was 11.  She was interested in civil rights at an early age, and won a high school speech contest when she spoke on the topic of  “the race problem,” which she described as one that existed entirely in the minds of white Americans.  After graduation, she was heavily involved with her community, as she was an excellent vocalist and sang in the community, was a teacher at her church, and helped get money for a new organ for the church from Andrew Carnegie.  In addition, she was very active in promoting the civil rights of African Americans and had met many prominent Black leaders, such as W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington.

To learn about her activities relating to women’s suffrage, please register for the CLE this Thursday.

Registration information at the Ramsey County Bar Association CLE Calendar.  A flyer about the program is located here.

 

 

 

 

In the most recent issue of the Ramsey County History magazine, Ramsey County Chief Judge John H. Guthmann’s piece on Clara Anderson is one of the featured articles. In this well-researched article, he describes the circumstances that led up to Ms. Anderson’s case, clearly explains the legal arguments that supported her case, and then outlines the changes to the law after she lost her final appeal in the Minnesota Supreme Court in the late spring of 1948.

Long-time readers might remember this bit of Ramsey County history from a previous blog post, but here is a quick reminder of who was Clara Anderson, and why her case is so interesting. Ms. Anderson started as a waitress at the Frederic Hotel in St. Paul, MN in 1936. In 1940, she changed jobs, and was then identified as a bartender at the same hotel. Her salary increased dramatically; as a waitress she received $45 a month (plus tips), but as a bartender, her pay increased to $200, with her room, board, and meals included.

When World War II ended and men came back from the war, they found that many of the jobs at home were being performed by women. Bartender unions, many with “male-only” membership requirements, pressured governments across the county to ban women from the lucrative bartending positions so that their male members could step into these jobs. The St. Paul City Council, with the strong encouragement of the St. Paul’s Bartender Union Local 287, passed Ordinance 8604 which prevented women (except for the owner’s wife) from tending the bar.  Understandably upset at the prospect of losing her job, Ms. Anderson sued the City of St. Paul.

We encourage you to read Judge Guthmann’s article to find out more about the case, and what happened afterwards. (Hint – eventually, St. Paul amended Ordinance 8604 in 1970.) In addition to the excellent research, the article has many pictures showing pictures of the judges, attorneys, and parties in the case, as well photos of historical downtown St. Paul. And a small plug for the law library: There is nice picture of Judge Carlton McNally, who was the first judge to weigh in on Ms. Anderson’s case. The portrait is part of the Ramsey County Law Library’s Judicial Portrait collection.

 

March is Women’s History Month

Her Honor

 

 

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which legalized a woman’s right to vote.  In Minnesota, 1922 was the first year that women could run for office in the Minnesota legislature, and four of the eight women candidates who ran for office won.  In the book Her Honor:  Rosalie Wahl and the Minnesota Women’s Movement author Lori Sturdevant provides intriguing and interesting facts about the twentieth century women’s movement in Minnesota:

  • The Minnesota Women’s Suffrage Association agitated for the full enfranchisement of women for forty years before achieving success.  The organization morphed into the Minnesota League of Women Voters.
  • Cornelia “Coya” Gjesdal Knutson—12 years Rosalie’s senior—was born on a farm in North Dakota.  Despite family struggles, she rose to political significance by financing her own campaign for election to the U.S. Congress, which she won in 1954, becoming the first woman in Minnesota to do so.  Sadly, her 1958 re-election bid failed due to false statements made about her family life and troubled marriage—attributed to her DFL colleagues and husband.  Coya Knutson was a victim of the inherent sexism of her time.
  • Rosalie Wahl went to law school by financing her own way; her family was well-established by then, and yet she gave birth to a fifth child while in law school.  Overcoming many obstacles, defeats, and triumphs, Rosalie became the first woman justice appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1977.  Her appointment came amidst Minnesota’s politically active feminists maneuvering for political office.
  • After her appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court, Justice Wahl “viewed her role as helping her colleagues see justice from the bottom up—that is, from the vantage not only of women, but also of disadvantaged people of all kinds, including those accused of serious crimes.”  In 1987, the “Minnesota Supreme Court Task Force for Gender Fairness in the Courts” was established; it was headed by Justice Wahl.
  • Justice Wahl retired from the supreme court on August 31, 1994.  She involved herself in community service, including leadership training for young women.  She lived to see more women take on leadership roles in Minnesota: Kathleen Blatz was elevated to first woman Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court; Amy Klobuchar was elected Minnesota’s first woman U.S. Senator; and DFLer Betty McCollum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since voters sent representative Coya Knutson home in 1958.

Her Honor:  Rosalie Wahl and the Minnesota Women’s Movement is available for check-out from the Ramsey County Law Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diversity in the Bar Association: Then and Now

This photo of the bench and bar of Ramsey County from 1958 was donated to the Law Library by Tom  Boyd.

This photo of the bench and bar of Ramsey County from 1958 was donated to the Law Library by Tom Boyd.

On Monday, September 24, the Ramsey County Law Library and the Ramsey County Bar Association sponsored a CLE entitled Diversity in the Bar Association:  Then and Now.  The CLE featured four speakers: Thomas Boyd, Winthrop and Weinstine, PA;  Emeritus Professor Douglas Heidenreich, Mitchell Hamline College of Law; Paul Nelson, attorney, historian, and author; and Honorable Nicole Star, Second Judicial District.  Preregistration for the program indicated about 20 for this session, but many spur-of-the-moment attendees filled the north reading room.

The program started with Tom Boyd presenting to the law library a photograph of the membership of the Bench and Bar of Ramsey County from 1958.  The photograph was received by John Trojack, Chair of the Law Library Board of Trustees.

20180924_120539

Mr. Boyd then went on to give a brief overview of diversity (and the lack thereof) in the early years of the Bar Association.

20180924_121058

He was followed by Professor Heidenreich, who described how discrimination within the bar association started in the law schools.

20180924_121312

Professor Heidenreich was followed by Mr. Nelson, who continued with brief biographies of four well-known African American attorneys in the early years of Minnesota. Frederick McGheeCharles Scrutchin, William R. Morris, and James Anderson.  (Note of interest, Mr. Nelson is the author of a book about Frederick McGhee, and if you would like to read it, both the Ramsey County Law Library and the Minnesota State Law Library have copies.)

20180924_123346

The session concluded with Judge Starr speaking about her experiences, and she referenced the MSBA Diversity Strategic Plan as a resource for identifying ways to increase diversity and inclusiveness.

20180924_125710

For a better look at the photo of the Bench and Bar presented by Tom Boyd, please visit the Ramsey County Law Library.