Cora T. Walker

Cora Thomasina Walker was born on June 20, 1922, in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of nine children of William and Benetta Jones Walker. Her family later settled in New York, where she graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx. She entered a special six-year program at St. John's University, then in Brooklyn, earning a bachelor's degree in 1945 and, in 1946, becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from the St. John's University School of Law.

Admitted to the New York bar in 1947, Walker was among the first Black women to practice law in the state. Turned away by established firms, she opened her own practice in Harlem and built a career representing the residents of that community. Over the decades she practiced independently and in partnership, serving as an associate and then partner at Doles, Sandifer & Walker, and from 1976 to 1999 as senior partner in the firm of Walker & Bailey, which she shared with her son.

Walker's advocacy reached well beyond the courtroom. She served as general counsel to the Harlem River Consumers Cooperative, a community food initiative she helped defend through years of legal challenges. Within the profession she became the first woman to serve as president of the Harlem Lawyers Association, and, as chair of the National Bar Association's Commercial Law Section, she founded its Corporate Counsel Conference in 1988. She twice sought a seat in the New York State Senate and was named among the most powerful people in Harlem.

Her achievements were honored late in life with an honorary Doctor of Laws (1992) and the Medal of Honor (2000) from St. John's University. Cora T. Walker died on July 13, 2006, at the age of 84. She opened doors that had been closed and spent a lifetime holding them open for others — a barrier-breaker whose name is honored among the ancestors.