Lila Fenwick

Lila Althea Fenwick (May 24, 1932 – April 4, 2020) was an American lawyer, human rights advocate, and United Nations official. She was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Law School.^[1][2][3]

Lila Fenwick
Born	May 24, 1932  Manhattan
Died	April 4, 2020  (aged 87) Manhattan
Alma mater	Harvard Law School Barnard College London School of Economics
Occupation	Lawyer, human rights defender
Employer	United Nations Human Rights Committee (1960s–1973)

Early life and education

Fenwick was born in Manhattan, New York City, on May 24, 1932.^[1] Her parents, John and Hilda Fenwick, were immigrants to the United States from Trinidad.^[1] She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Barnard College in 1953,^[4][5] before enrolling at Harvard Law School.^[1] A student in the class of 1956, Fenwick matriculated into the school's fourth class that admitted women.^[2] She then continued her studies at the London School of Economics.^[1]

Career

During her career, Fenwick was a private practice lawyer in the Bronx,^[6] and chief of the U.N. Human Rights Section, focused on indigenous peoples, migration, gender, race, and religious discrimination issues.^[7] She retired from the United Nations in 1973, before her section's headquarters moved to Geneva.^[2][8] She also co-founded the Foundation for Research and Education in Sickle Cell Disease with Doris Wethers and Yvette Fay Francis-McBarnette.^[9][10] Harvard's Black Law Students Association offers a Ruffin-Fenwick Trailblazer Award, named for Fenwick and for George Lewis Ruffin.^[11]

Personal life

Fenwick died at her home in Manhattan on April 4, 2020, from complications of COVID-19,^[12] at the age of 87.^[1][9]