Attorney Daphne Barbee-Wooten received her Juris Doctor from the University of Washington in 1979. In addition to her J.D., she has a Certificate in International Law from the Peace Palace, 1983 The Hague Netherlands and has a B.A. Degree in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In 2015 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Hawaii NAACP along with her husband. In 2016 she received the civil rights attorney of the year award from Sisters Empowering Hawai’i. She was interviewed and featured in the History Makers , 2019. She is a volunteer with the African American film festival at the Honolulu Art Museum. She is a former President of the African American Lawyers Association of Hawai’i and a member of the National Bar Association, Hawai’i State Bar Association. She is a former EEOC Trial Attorney, Board of Bar Examiners (1993 – 2011) U.S. Commission on Civil Rights-Hawaii Advisory (2007-2009), and Hawai’i Civil Rights Commission, Commissioner (1989 – 1995). She is the Chairperson for the Hawaii State Board of Registration on Oahu.
She is a published author and videographer. Her writing publications include: Sisters Across Oceans, (Pacific Raven Press 2021) Justice For All, Selected Writings of Lloyd A. Barbee ( Wisconsin Historical Press 2017), African American Attorneys in Hawai’i, Pacific Raven Press updated in 2020, They Followed the Trade Winds: African Americans in Hawai’i, UH Press 2004, The Politics of Change: Law and African Americans in Twentieth-Century Hawaii. Hawaii Bar Journal, The Lawgiver: George Marion Johnson, J.D., LLD, (February 2005); Essence Magazine, African Americans in Hawai’i, (April 1994), Hawai’i Bar Journal, Hawaii’s First Black Lawyer (February 2004), Hawaii Civil Rights Commission” August 1993, “Spreading the Aloha of Civil Rights”, Hawai’i Bar Journal, November 1999, Go Girl, A Black Woman’s Guide to Travel and Adventure, 1999, contributing writer “Nanny Town, Jamaica”. She writes articles for Blackpast.org. Her poetry is found in “I Can’t Breathe”, A poetic anthology of social justice, edited by Christopher Okemwa, Kistrech Theatre International (2021), La’ila’i. Anthology of the Women’s center Reading Series, University of Hawaii Women’s Center (1996) and has performed her poetry in many venues.