Vaino Hassan Spencer (July 22, 1920 – October 25, 2016) was an American judge, the first African-American woman appointed to a judgeship in California."L. A. Gets First Negro Woman Judge in State" Pasadena Independent (October 9, 1961): 2. via Newspapers.com She co-founded the Black Women Lawyers Association in 1975,Beth Ann Krier, "Double Minority: Black Women Lawyers Organize" Los Angeles Times (November 23, 1975): E1. and the National Association of Women Judges in 1979.Shae Collins, "Black History Abounds in L.A." Our Weekly Los Angeles (February 20, 2013).
Early life and education Vaino Hassan was born in 1920, in Los Angeles. As a teenager, she appeared as a dancer in a Laurel and Hardy movie, Bonnie Scotland (1935), along with her father, Abdul Hassan.Amina Hassan, Loren Miller, Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist (University of Oklahoma Press 2015): 266, note 153.
She graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1938, attended Los Angeles City College as an undergraduate, and earned a law degree from Southwestern Law School in 1952."Pioneering Alumna Vaino Spencer Retires from the Bench" Southwestern Law School, news release (October 17, 2007). She was the third African-American woman admitted to the California bar.Yussuf Simmonds, "African American Women Appeal Court Justices" Los Angeles Sentinel (March 29, 2012). Before her law degree, she held a real estate license, and worked in that business.Jessie Carnie Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women Volume 2 (VNR AG 1996): 612.
Career Vaino Hassan Spencer practiced as a lawyer in Los Angeles. In 1961 she was appointed as a municipal court judge in Los Angeles, the first black woman in California appointed to a judgeship. In 1976, she became a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, and in 1980 she was named a Presiding Judge of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division One. She retired in 2007 as "one of the longest-serving judges in California history.""Vaino Spencer to Retired as Presiding Justice" Metropolitan News-Enterprise (August 27, 2007).
Personal life and legacy Vaino Hassan married real estate agent Lorenzo V. Spencer."Woman Rules" Jet Magazine (October 26, 1961): 15. They divorced in 1967.Beverly Beyette, "Q&A: Justice Vaino Spencer on her Career" Los Angeles Times (October 29, 1980): 10.
The National Association of Women Judges annually presents the Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award for outstanding leadership.National Association of Women Judges, Awards Description.
Spencer died on October 25, 2016, at her home in Los Angeles.Vaino Spencer, Trailblazing Lawyer, Judge, Appeals Court PJ, Dies at 96 Metropolitan News. October 27, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
See also List of African-American jurists List of first women lawyers and judges in California
References
External links Biography. California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One.