With an unusual career, she has been noted for her “refusal to allow the circumstances of her birth, the realities of her time, and the limitations imposed by others define her destiny.”[1] However, Alexander-Ralston's legacy has remained largely unrecognized, with her story untold for many years.
[3] The family moved to Scotland Neck, North Carolina soon after Elreta was born, and in 1925 continued to Danville, Virginia, where Alain taught and Joseph was pastor at Loyal Baptist Church.
[4] Joseph and Alain met when she was very young: he was her high school teacher, and they started dating before she was transferred from his class, marrying after she finished her second year of college.
[6] Alain's parents had an interracial relationship but her father, a white shopkeeper, kept his store segregated and their family had colorist prejudices, Elreta recalled later.
Joseph tutored his children after school in reading, math, Greek and Latin, and Alain taught dancing and singing, pushing back against the formalities often demanded in the Baptist tradition at that time.
Alexander-Ralston's parents, like many other middle-class black families at the time, refused to engage with the racial injustice of exposing their children to segregated spaces.
[9] After spending about twelve years in Danville, Virginia, the family returned to North Carolina, this time to the bustling metropolis of Greensboro.
Elreta idolized her father and wanted to become a minister like him, but she also later praised her mother for her professional and personal drive, labeling her a progressive woman.
[3] Alexander-Ralston was inspired to go to law school after campaigning for her friend Reverend Sharpe, who was running to be the first black city councilmember for Greensboro.
[11][12] Sharpe narrowly lost due to white candidates buying the votes of black voters, and this loss felt devastating to Alexander-Ralston.
In one of her first courtroom appearances in 1946, she argued for the employees of Delaware Lackawanna railroad in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District after the lead attorney was away: she won the case.
[8] However, it is important to note that Ruth Whitehead Whaley was the first black woman admitted to the North Carolina bar, in 1933, but she never practiced in the state.
At the time, it was almost unheard-of for black attorneys to represent white clients, but Godfrey begged her to help, and she checked that it would be permitted by the presiding judge before proceeding.
She personally integrated the boutique Montaldos in 1950,[3] and would wear high fashion into the segregated courtrooms of the 1950s and make her fellow lawyers and judges beg her to agree to exceptions to their discrimination after she sat next to working-class people in the black section, exploiting their discomfort rooted in colorism and classism.
She was not afraid to talk back to offensive lawyers and deployed biting and sarcastic responses when they belittled her, frequently couching deep critiques in jokes and legal points.
This case became one of North Carolina's longest, and was argued up to the state Supreme Court where she had challenged the racially-biased selection of jurors.
However, black citizens of Greensboro celebrated the election, with many people attending to see her first day, including the principal from her high school and members of the NAACP.
[2] Although she faced concerted efforts to remove or discredit her over her career, she continued to be immensely respected, and was ranked as the best judge in the district in a poll of attorneys at one point.
[21] In 1969 she began one of her most notable accomplishments as a judge: "Judgment Day," which focused on rehabilitating young offenders and misdemeanants as an alternative to incarceration and criminal records.
Alexander-Ralston ran without informing or asking the state's Republican party for permission, and she refused to hide her gender or race during her campaign, pushing back against the advisors who told her to do so to avoid sexist or racist backlash.
[23] She faced an uphill battle during her campaign, because Susie Sharp, a white woman, was running unopposed with much voter enthusiasm on the Democratic ticket.
This was also a midterm election with a statewide electorate that knew her less than Guilford County did, and a time period in which the Republican Party turned against the Civil Rights movement, all of which made racial prejudice factor more against her.
These headwinds caused her to lose the Republican nomination to James Newcomb, a fire extinguisher salesman with no college degree or legal background.
[3][32] She told press at the time that he had a great sense of humor and made her happier than she thought she could be, a stark contrast to what she described as the traumatic 30 years of her first marriage.
[33] Alexander-Ralston's son had schizophrenia and although she spent a lot of time trying to find education and caretaking solutions for him, Girardeau increasingly had unpredictable violent outbursts.
In 1990, he killed his caretaker, Eula Mae Rankin, and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, although he lived the rest of his life in a group home instead.