Juanita Kidd Stout A Register of Her Papers in the Library of Congress Prepared by Joseph K. Brooks with the assistance of Marjorie Torney Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 2002 Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2006 Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms006010 Collection Summary Title: Papers of Juanita Kidd Stout Span Dates: 1873-1998 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1948-1997) ID No.: MSS84478 Creator: Stout, Juanita Kidd, 1919-1998 Extent: 35,000 items; 101 containers plus 1 oversize; 41 linear feet Language: Collection material in English Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Abstract: Lawyer and judge. Correspondence, legal case files, speeches, articles, topical files, family papers, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous papers relating mainly to Stout's career as a trial judge. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. Names: Stout, Juanita Kidd, 1919-1998 Alexander, Raymond Pace, 1898-1974--Correspondence Alexander, Sadie Tanner Mossell, 1898-1989--Correspondence Alpern, Anne X.--Correspondence Blatt, Genevieve, 1913- --Correspondence Boger, Lawrence L.--Correspondence Boren, David, 1941- --Correspondence Capers, Jean M.--Correspondence Dickerson, Mahala--Correspondence Hamilton, John W.--Correspondence Hastie, William, 1904-1976--Correspondence Houston, Charles Hamilton, 1895-1950--Correspondence Massiah-Jackson, Frederica A.--Correspondence Nelson, Gail--Correspondence Nix, Robert N. C. (Robert Nelson Cornelius), 1905-1987--Correspondence Ponder, Henry, 1928- --Correspondence Sears-Collins, Leah--Correspondence Schweiker, Richard S. (Richard Schultz), 1926- --Correspondence Smith, Charles Z. 1927- --Correspondence Specter, Arlen--Correspondence White, Ronald A. (Ronald Avon)--Correspondence Chandler family Kidd family Stout family Pennsylvania. Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia County) Pennsylvania. Municipal Court (Philadelphia County) Pennsylvania. Supreme Court Subjects: Courts--Pennsylvania Gangs Juvenile delinquency Trials (Murder)--Pennsylvania Welfare economics Occupation: Papers of Juanita Kidd Stout 2 Jurists Administrative Information Provenance: The papers of Juanita Kidd Stout, lawyer and judge, were given to the Library of Congress by her estate and by Tyrone S. Drummond in 2000. Transfers: Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. A drawing has been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division, and video and audiotapes have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers have been identified in these divisions as part of the Juanita Kidd Stout Papers. Copyright Status: The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Juanita Kidd Stout is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.). Preferred Citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Juanita Kidd Stout Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Biographical Note Date Event 1919, Mar. 7 Born, Wewoka, Okla. 1939 Graduated, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 1942 Married Charles O. Stout (1907-1988) 1944-1945 Secretary to Charles H. Houston of Houston, Houston and Hastie law firm, Washington, D.C. 1949 Graduated, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Ind. 1949-1955 Administrative secretary to William H. Hastie, U. S. Court of Appeals 1955-1959 Private practice, Philadelphia, Pa. 1956-1959 Assistant district attorney, Philadelphia, Pa. 1959-1968 Judge, Municipal Court, Philadelphia County, Pa. 1968-1988 Judge, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pa. 1988-1989 Justice, supreme court of Pennsylvania 1989-1998 Senior judge, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pa. 1998, Aug. 21 Died, Philadelphia, Pa. Papers of Juanita Kidd Stout 3 Scope and Content Note The papers of Juanita Kidd Stout (1919-1998) span the years 1873-1998, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1948 and 1998. In October 1959, the governor of Pennsylvania appointed Stout a judge of the municipal court in Philadelphia County while she was a candidate for the post in the Philadelphia municipal elections. That November, she won a ten-year term on the court, thus becoming the first African-American woman appointed or elected judge of a court of record or general jurisdiction in the United States. In 1988, when she was appointed to the Pennsylvania supreme court, Stout became the first African-American female justice on a state supreme court. The papers are organized in the following series: Personal File, General Correspondence, Legal File, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, and Oversize. The family papers of the Personal File include material on Stout's parents, Henry M. and Mary A. Kidd, who emigrated from Missouri and Mississippi respectively to settle in Seminole County, Oklahoma, when the state was still a territory. The family file also includes material on the Kidd and Chandler families and on Charles O. Stout, a college professor and Juanita Kidd Stout's husband. Correspondents in the General Correspondence series include Lawrence L. Boger, David L. Boren, John W. Hamilton, Gail Nelson, Henry Ponder, Richard S. Schweiker, and Arlen Specter. Most of the Legal File documents Juanita Kidd Stout's service on the municipal court and the court of common pleas, both for Philadelphia County, and as a justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court. She developed an interest in juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and welfare while serving as an assistant district attorney for Philadelphia County during the 1950s, and once on the municipal court she was noted for her outspokenness on these issues in the local and national media, for her tough sentencing of recalcitrant juvenile offenders, and for her continuing contact with juvenile offenders she found to be redeemable. The bulk of Stout's service was as a judge specializing in murder trials on the court of common pleas. Most of the common pleas case files relate to trials or hearings where she rendered a written opinion. These were usually either bench trials, where she sat without a jury and ruled on both the facts and the law in a case, or en banc hearings, the first stage of the appellate process in Pennsylvania, where she sat with other judges to hear post-trial motions. She also retained files about cases in which there was a great deal of media interest, such as the Ira Einhorn trial, or in which she had a special interest in the legal issues or the defendants. Some cases not found in the municipal court or court of common pleas case files are documented in newspaper clippings in the Personal File series. Stout's tenure on the Pennsylvania supreme court was brief, 1988-1989, because she was close to the Commonwealth's mandatory retirement age when appointed. Much of the supreme court case file is taken up with actions against corrupt or otherwise troubled Pennsylvania judges. In rel. Stout relates to her unsuccessful effort to remain on the supreme court despite the mandatory retirement rule. Other cases in which Stout was involved include Stout v. Helm, part of the Pennsylvania judicial elections file related to challenges of her nomination petitions when she ran unsuccessfully for a superior court judgeship in 1966, and Stout v. W. W. Norton & Co., in which she successfully sued journalist Linn Washington and his publisher in 1995 for allegedly defaming her in his book on African-American judges, Black Judges on Justice. The estates grouping of the Legal File includes material related to Stout's service as executor of the estate of her close friend, lawyer, and civic and civil rights activist Sadie T. M. Alexander, one of the first African-American women awarded a doctorate degree in the United States and the first black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. Stout tracked colleagues and African-American and female pioneers of bar and bench through an extensive biographical file that is part of the Subject File. Many lawyers and judges whose careers she followed were also correspondents, including Raymond P. Alexander, Sadie T. M.. Alexander, Anne X. Alpern, Genevieve Blatt, Jean M. Capers, Mahala A. Dickerson, William H. Hastie, Charles H. Houston, Frederica Massiah-Jackson, Robert N. C. Nix, Leah Sears-Collins, Charles Z. Smith, Arlen Spector, and Ronald A. White. Organization of the Papers The collection is arranged in six series: Papers of Juanita Kidd Stout 4 • Personal File, 1890-1998, n.d. • General Correspondence, 1948-1998, n.d. • Legal File, 1873-1997, n.d. • Subject File, ca. 1900-1998, n.d. • Speeches and Writings File, 1935-1997, n.d. • Oversize, 1962-1964 Papers of Juanita Kidd Stout 5 Description of Series Container Series BOX 1-9 Personal File, 1890-1998, n.d. Biographical material, family papers, correspondence, awards, newspaper clippings, estate papers, scrapbooks, and printed matter. Arranged alphabetically by type of material or subject and thereunder chronologically. BOX 9-24 General Correspondence, 1948-1998, n.d. Correspondence with attached material between Stout and friends, professional associates, businesses,