Women’s Rights & Citizenship: A History of Women Jurors

Obligations of and the rights under US citizenship were not easily established for all Americans. Men, both white and then men of color, were the first to win the right to vote. Women, Native Americans, and citizens of Asian descent only won this fight decades later.

Today we take for granted that powerful right to vote but in looking back there is another right of citizenship which was not allowed for all in New York State until 1937 – the right to sit on a jury and with that, the right to have a jury of your peers.

Shortly after women won the right to vote across the nation in 1920, the newly formed League of Women Voters quickly identified that women still did not have the right to sit on juries and therefore any women accused of a crime could not have a jury of their peers.

This issue was well known in Clinton County when the first woman whose name appeared on a jury list in 1923 clarified that her name could not be on that list because she was a woman. Nellie Durrette from Dannemora was “excused.”

Also in 1922 when Luella North was elected as the first judge of the Children’s Court of Clinton County and the only female Judge in New York State, if she had lost that election, she could not have served on a jury despite being a tax payer and property owner.

Arguments against putting women on juries were identical to those used to deny her the right to vote. She had obligations to the home which were more important and is “emotionally unfit and only judges based on someone’s good looks.”

Additionally, women would be infringing on “male space.” An article in the Plattsburgh Sentinel in 1927 wondered why a women would even want the right.

Despite the fact that women had been voting for nine years, sitting on juries was still man’s business. These arguments would hold up long after women were allowed to be on juries in 1937.

To be on a jury before 1937, you had to be a male property holder even if the property was your wife’s property. You were chosen by your town’s supervisor, your town’s clerk and the town assessors. This list was submitted to the county.

In 1936 women would not be on that list. The first legislation passed in March of 1937 to allow female jurors was called a “permissive jury bill,” where women were allowed to be on juries but could use any excuse to release themselves from that obligation.

Clinton County’s Republican Senator Benjamin Feinberg felt women had “more important duties than serving on juries” and remarked that this would require a reconstruction of the courthouse. He was not alone among Senators in defining this responsibility as an “unpleasant duty” women should not be required to do.

The bill passed 32 for the “permissive bill” and 13 against. It was not until the 1970s that women were considered truly to be citizens with the right and obligation to sit on juries nationwide.

In Clinton County, jury lists and newspaper headlines and reports easily defined how this issue was managed here. In 1937, when women first had the right to be on juries, only the Town of Clinton exercised this right on behalf of their citizens and submitted the names of nine women.

This anomaly made the newspapers and two of the women, Florence Cavanagh and Alice Looby, were chosen to be on a panel of 50 waiting to be called if necessary. After that and into the 1940s no women were listed by the Town of Clinton. And they were not alone.

In 1941 Cora Stafford from Beekmantown was chosen to be on a second jury panel and this made headlines in the Plattsburgh Daily Press. She did not end up sitting on the actual jury in the case.

In 1944 only 15 women in the entire county were on jury lists, 10 from Champlain. In 1947, as a result of a defendant’s complaint, towns were called out for not having women on their jury lists. Champlain had 11, Mooers just one and Saranac only three. The rest had no women on their lists.

By 1949 lists had changed. The Grand Jury had three women and 21 men and the trial jury had 19 women and 31 men and each town appeared to be represented.

By 1950 the jury chosen for civil court listed 10 women and 18 men, and of the 20 excused, only three were women. It was also noted that employers could fire women who chose to serve on juries since it was not mandatory.

Researchers looking at jury lists will find a mini-census of property owners over the years. It can be distracting – we call it going down rabbit holes.

One such hole led to the Town of Champlain’s jury list. Champlain most consistently included a few women on their jury lists. Della Burke, the proprietor of Hotel Montomery, was one.

Della Castine at 30 years old was actually chosen for jury duty and recognized as the first woman to sit on a jury in the county.

She was the sole female in the 12-person jury. The 1942 case was of a maid accused of abandoning her children and breaking up another home.

The defendant, who left school after 6th grade, had a grown son from her first marriage at age 15, and had been to his wedding in February of that year.

The husband of her three young children, with the oldest being 13 and the youngest 9, had died. She did not testify and was found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Did she have a jury of her peers even with Della Castine? Years later the defendant returned to Plattsburgh, remarried and was employed at the Pal Blade company.

In 1974, women were declared to be equal citizens with the right and obligation to serve on juries. Juries are defined by some as a “sacred and defining aspect of the American legal system.”

Congratulations to those early advocates who persisted in assuring that the 6th Amendment included women.

Illustration: Newspaper article noting Cora Stafford’s selection as a juror in 1941 (she did not end up serving).