Norgren, Jill 1943–

PERSONAL:

Born 1943.

ADDRESSES:

Office—John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, 899 10th Ave., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the Graduate Center, professor emeritus.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Serena Nanda) American Cultural Pluralism and Law, Praeger (New York, NY), 1988, 2nd edition, 1996, 3rd edition, 2006.

(With Petra T. Shattuck) Partial Justice: Federal Indian Law in a Liberal Constitutional System, Berg (New York, NY), 1991.

The Cherokee Cases: The Confrontation of Law and Politics, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1996, published as The Cherokee Cases: Two Landmark Federal Decisions in the Fight for Sovereignty, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 2004.

Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, New York University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jill Norgren is a professor emeritus of government at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Through her research and writing, she has shown a particular interest in the legal treatment of women in society, and in Native American law. Her book American Cultural Pluralism and Law, which was written with Serena Nanda, has been popular enough to go into second and third editions. The book examines the relationship between law in the United States and the many subcultures that exist in the nation, whose beliefs and practices may put them at odds with the law. Norgren and Nanda look at Native Americans and issues of land use, Latinos and immigration struggles, and African Americans and civil rights cases. They look at religion and the instances where certain groups, such as Mormons or Amish, have had to fight to carry on their social traditions. They present cases where certain subcultures have ritually used substances that are normally outlawed as illicit drugs. Gender issues are discussed in chapters on women's rights and gay marriage, and in a section on citizenship, the authors look at discrimination against the homeless and disabled, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the difficulties involved in respecting cultural differences while maintaining a ‘war on terror."

In 2007, Norgren published Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President. The biography tells the story of Lockwood, a little-known figure who was actually the first female presidential candidate. Although she was a contemporary of women's-rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lockwood is not nearly so well known as those women. Lockwood was a mother and the wife of a farmer, but at the age of thirty-eight, in an era when few women received a higher education, she decided to enroll at what is now known as George Washington Law School. She was turned away after being told that her presence would serve as too much of a distraction to the male students. Following that decision against her, Lockwood arranged to have the rejection letter printed in a public newspaper. Soon thereafter, she was accepted to another school.

After earning her degree in law, Lockwood sought to overcome another barrier. She wanted to open up the Supreme Court to female lawyers, and after considerable lobbying in Congress, she succeeded in becoming the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Lockwood's ambitions did not end there. Her bid for the presidency was launched in 1884, more than thirty years before women even had the right to vote. She ran again in 1888, both times positioning herself as the choice of the Equal Rights Party. Her platform was well developed, addressing both foreign and domestic issues. Although she received no electoral votes, her participation in the campaign was an important milestone in and of itself. Following her second bid for the presidency, she focused on her legal practice, public-speaking engagements, and her work with the Universal Peace Union.

American Lawyer contributor Aruna Viswanatha called Belva Lockwood ‘a portrait of a trailblazing feminist.’ Lockwood's papers were mostly destroyed, but the author worked from the writings of contemporaries, periodicals of the day, and records held by private organizations to piece together Lockwood's story. The book focuses primarily on Lockwood's career, but some information on family and friends gives another dimension to Norgren's portrait. Linda V. Carlisle, a reviewer for Library Journal, called Norgren's book ‘an able and long overdue’ account of the woman who, though much less famous, was as strong an advocate for women's rights as her contemporaries, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 2005, Andrew Denson, ‘The Cherokee Cases: Two Landmark Federal Decisions in the Fight for Sovereignty,’ p. 137.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal, fall, 1996, John Shaw, review of The Cherokee Cases: The Confrontation of Law and Politics, p. 214.

American Journal of Legal History, July, 1993, Frederick E. Hoxie, review of Partial Justice: Federal Indian Law in a Liberal Constitutional System, p. 383.

American Lawyer, Jun, 2007, Aruna Viswanatha, review of Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, p. 86.

International Journal of the Sociology of Law, June, 1994, Zoann Snyder-Joy, review of Partial Justice, p. 169.

Law and History Review, fall, 1994, Carol Chomsky, review of Partial Justice, p. 395.

Legal Studies Forum, January 1, 1996, Carol Chomsky, review of The Cherokee Cases, p. 159.

Library Journal, April 15, 2007, Linda V. Carlisle, review of Belva Lockwood, p. 98.

New Republic, April 2, 2007, ‘Madame Candidate,’ p. 56.

Reference & Research Book News, June, 1996, review of American Cultural Pluralism and Law, 2nd edition, p. 50; November, 2006, review of American Cultural Pluralism and Law, 3rd edition.

Roundup Magazine, October, 2004, Doris Meredith, review of The Cherokee Cases, p. 25.

Social & Legal Studies, September, 1995, Peter Fitzpatrick, review of Partial Justice, p. 424.

Western Legal History, January 1, 1994, Stephen L. Wasby, review of Partial Justice, p. 149.