Juanita Elizabeth Jackson Mitchell (January 2, 1913 – July 7, 1992) was the first African-American woman to practice law in Maryland, and was a civil rights activist and organizer with the NAACP.

Lillie became a committed civil rights activist after a major medical crisis in 1918, and built the Baltimore NAACP branch to become one of the organization's most important.

[1] Mitchell attended Frederick Douglass High School, Morgan State College and graduated, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.

She organized civil rights discussions, movies and music events, and speech competitions, generally supporting the city's youth and Black community.

At one local business, the A&P grocery store, the manager believed hiring Black workers would lead current white employees to quit.

The campaign mainly targeted libraries, welfare agencies, and schools, with Mitchell emphasizing that Black people in Baltimore could not be firemen, policemen, or social workers at the time, and had to live in court-enforced ghettos.

[2][5] In her earlier years, Mitchell traveled extensively throughout the U.S. for the Bureau of Negro Work and the Methodist church, speaking and teaching courses in race relations.

The main goal of these chapters were to support Black youth in becoming community leaders and activists, and this helped build a pipeline of committed NAACP members.

The main four focuses of most youth councils of the time were campaigns for better rights and laws: equal education, employment opportunities, civil liberties, and antilynching legislation.

[7] Mitchell encouraged councils to host social events to build popularity, and urgent political action as a tactic to produce change.

From 1965-1967, she was also co-chairman of the Baltimore mayor's Task Force Committee on Police-Community relations, and she counseled freedom riders and protestors of segregated restaurants at the same time.

[3] She was the daughter of Dr. Lillie Jackson, who was also a major civil rights leader and who also was president of the NAACP Baltimore branch and was known as "Mother of Freedom.

The group is affiliated with the Maryland and national bar associations and is involved in community legal outreach, professional mentoring, judicial nominations and civic initiatives.