Annie Virginia Stephens Coker (1903-1986)

May 06, 2015 
/ Contributed By: Martin Schiesl

|Annie Stephens Coker|

Annie Coker

Courtesy Stephens Family papers

Attorney Annie Virginia Stephens Coker was born in Oakland, California, on April 7, 1903 to William Morris and Pauline Logan Stephens. Coker attended public schools in Oakland. Her family moved to Pacific Grove, California, where she graduated from high school in 1921.

Coker later attended the University of California at Berkeley and received a bachelorโ€™s degree in science in 1924. Encouraged by her father to attend law school, she enrolled in Boalt School of Law at UC Berkeley and earned a degree in 1929. At that time she was only the second woman to receive a law degree from the school and the first African American woman to complete the program.ย  Coker passed the California Bar in the same year, the first African American female attorney in California.

The doors of most law firms in California were not open to African American attorneys in the early 1930s.ย  Coker then moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and maintained a private law practice there for almost a decade.

In 1939, Coker ended her law practice and returned to California, settling in Sacramento.ย  Recognizing that government service now offered more opportunities for women attorneys than private practice, Coker joined the State Office of Legislative Counsel as a junior deputy legislative counsel. She worked her way up to head of the Indexing Section.ย  There she compiled all of the state codes, kept them current, indexed all bills pending before the legislature, and rendered legal opinions about the proposed legislation.ย  One co-worker described her as a โ€œconscientiousโ€ person who worked tirelessly to ensure the accuracy and timely dissemination of the indexed bills to the California legislature.

Coker retired in 1966, after 27 years of distinguished public service.ย  At the time of her retirement she was recognized as the attorney with the most longevity at the State Office of Legislative Counsel.

Annie Virginia Stephens Coker died in Sacramento, California on February 17, 1986 at the age of 83.

About the Author

Author Profile

Martin Schiesl is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Los Angeles. His specialities are the history of urban America in the twentieth century and the social, political, and governmental histories of Los Angeles and California since 1900. He is the author of The Politics of Efficiency: Municipal Administration and Reform in America, 1880-1920 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977), co-editor of 20th Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1990), editor of Responsible Liberalism: Edmund G. โ€œPatโ€ Brown and Reform Government in California, 1958-1967 (Los Angeles: Edmund G. โ€œPatโ€ Brown Institute of Public Affairs, California State University, Los Angeles, 2003), and co-editor of City of Promise: Race and Historical Change in Los Angeles (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 2006). He is also the author of โ€œResidential Opportunity for All Californians: Governor Edmund G. โ€œPatโ€ Brown and the Struggle for Fair Housing Legislation, 1959-1963,โ€ Edmund G. โ€œPatโ€ Brown Institute of Public Affairs, Historical Essay, August, 2013, 1-6. Dr. Schiesl is currently writing a book on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in California in the years from 1940 to 1970.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Schiesl, M. (2015, May 06). Annie Virginia Stephens Coker (1903-1986). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/coker-annie-virginia-stephens-1903-1986/

Source of the Author's Information:

Brenda F. Harbin, โ€œBlack Women Pioneers in the Law,โ€ The Historical
Reporter
6 (Spring 1987): 6-8; Nancy McCarthy, โ€œAnnie Coker: A Pioneer
California Lawyer,โ€ California Bar Journal, February 2008, http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Member/Detail/11458; Jonathan Watson, โ€œLegacy of American Female
Attorneys,โ€ 2015 revised.

Further Reading