Essay Questions

Who is Belva Lockwood?

Belva Lockwood is the subject of a spoken essay which Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered to a variety of different audiences over the years. The version which appears in this book was as a speech delivered to the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland in 2014. Lockwood twice ran for President as the nominee of the Equal Rights Party in 1884 and 1888 despite not even being able to cast a vote for herself. The true focus of Ginsburg’s essay, however, Lockwood’s iconic status in the history of the judiciary. After much difficulty through the attempted obstruction of the men in charge, Lockwood became the first woman to be admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bar. This then allowed her to become the first women to ever argue a case before the Supreme Court.

How did a case about a few hundred dollars in taxes lead to Ginsburg’s eventually becoming a Supreme Court Justice?

Ruth’s husband Marty was a tax lawyer. Ruth had no interest in tax law, being instead invested in larger issues related to discriminatory laws. These two came together unexpectedly in the form of an unmarried middle-aged man named Charles Moritz struggling to care for his elderly mother and being denied proper allowances for medical deductions as a result of—amazingly enough—sexual discrimination based on the fact that he was not married, divorced or widowed. This atypical twisting of discriminatory laws applicable to a white male became the defining case for the young Ruth and essentially ignited her interest in discrimination into a full-blown career passion which became integral into elevating her to the lofty levels of those shortlisted for consideration to be nominated to the Supreme Court.

What was the crime committed by Richard and Mildred Loving for which a Virginia judge suspended their one-year jail sentences on condition they left the state and never returned together for 25 years?

Five weeks after their marriage, the Lovings were asleep in their bedroom when the local sheriff and several deputies burst into their home in the middle of the night and arrested them both. Richard would be released the next day while Mildred would spend the next five nights sleeping in a jail cell. There was no trial, just an appearance before the judge, a plea, sentencing and the offer of the suspension. After tendering what he clearly considered a remarkably fair and open-minded offer to the Lovings to avoid serving a year in prison for their abominable transgression of Virginia law, the judge went on to explain how the law was necessary since, so the judge claimed, God had created all the various races of the world and then in His wisdom separated them by situating their populations on various continents thereby proving “the fact that he separated the races” because “he did not intend for them to mix.” The supposedly horrible crime committed by the couple? White man Richard married African-American/Native American Mildred in violation of the Virginia Racial Integrity Act.