She moved from Alabama to Alaska in 1958 for a fresh start. Months later, the woman became the region's first Black lawyer and first Black homesteader

For a Black woman lawyer in 1950s America, starting over in Alaska was hardly an ordinary choice. But Mahala Ashley Dickerson had already spent years breaking barriers in the legal profession when she decided to leave Indiana and head north. In 1958, the Alabama-born lawyer settled in Alaska looking for a new life. Within months, she had made history twice, becoming the territory's first Black homesteader and its first Black lawyer.

From Alabama to a new life in Alaska

Born in Montgomery County, Alabama, in 1912, Dickerson grew up in the American South and was an accomplished student from an early age. She graduated cum laude from Fisk University in 1935 with a degree in sociology and later earned her law degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., in 1948.

That same year, she was admitted to the Alabama State Bar, becoming the first Black woman to do so. She opened law offices in Montgomery and Tuskegee and began building a career around cases involving people who often had difficulty finding someone willing to fight for them.


In 1951, Dickerson moved to Indiana with her three sons after marrying attorney Frank Beckwith. She became the second Black woman admitted to the Indiana State Bar.

A few years later, a vacation to Alaska changed the direction of her life. Dickerson was drawn to the territory's landscape and decided that she wanted to live there. In 1958, she made the move.

She became a Black homesteader

After settling in Alaska, Dickerson filed a claim for a 160-acre homestead in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley near Wasilla. The claim made her the first Black homesteader in the valley, according to the National Park Service and Anchorage Museum.

Her decision was not simply about owning land. Dickerson was also entering a place where she would have to establish herself all over again as a Black woman working in a profession that was still dominated by white men.

Within months of moving to Alaska, she passed the Alaska Bar exam. She became the first Black woman admitted to the Alaska State Bar and one of the few female attorneys practicing in the territory at the time.

A lawyer who took on discrimination

Dickerson eventually opened law offices in Wasilla and Anchorage. Much of her work involved people who were poor or facing discrimination, and she also handled cases connected to women's and workers' rights.

She was not afraid of difficult opponents in court. Describing her approach, Dickerson once said, “My zeal was often resented by opposing counsel. I had no fear of the other attorney and often incurred his wrath.”

One of the cases that became important in her career involved a female professor at the University of Alaska who was being paid less than male professors. Dickerson pursued the equal-pay issue. She initially lost the case, but the decision was later reversed on appeal.

Her own career was not free from discrimination either. Dickerson faced obstacles because of both her race and gender, including difficulties finding the sponsors required for admission to the Alabama Bar. She also experienced a wider legal establishment that was slow to accept Black lawyers.

Her friendship with Rosa Parks

Dickerson's connection to the civil rights movement went back to her childhood. She had attended school with Rosa Parks in Montgomery, and the two remained friends throughout their lives.

When Parks visited Alaska for the first time in May 1982, she was asked why she had come. Her answer was simple: “at the request of a childhood friend, attorney Mahala Ashley Dickerson.”

The two women were later photographed together at an Anchorage NAACP event. Parks returned to Alaska again in 1996.

A career that lasted until her death

Dickerson continued practicing law for decades and became a mentor to younger minority lawyers. Her work eventually brought her several major honors.

In 1983, she became the first African American president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. She received an honorary doctor of law degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage the following year. In 1995, she received the Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association for her achievements as a woman lawyer.

She also wrote about her experiences in her 1998 autobiography, Delayed Justice for Sale. The book reflected on her career and her views on discrimination and the treatment of poor and underprivileged Americans.

Dickerson remained in Alaska and practiced law until her death in Wasilla on February 19, 2007. She was 94.

Her move north had started as a personal decision to build a new life. But in Alaska, Mahala Ashley Dickerson became more than a newcomer. She became the territory's first Black homesteader and first Black lawyer, while spending the rest of her career fighting for people who, like her, had often found themselves facing barriers others did not have to overcome.