"Jewel Lafontant Mankarious"(April 28, 1922- May 31, 1997)

Was the first woman deputy solicitor general of the United States,an official in the administration of President George H. Bush,and attorney in Chicago.She also was considered by President Richard Nixon as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.Born in Chicago as Jewel Carter Stradford,she was the daughter of noted Supreme Court of the United States attorney and co-founder of the National Bar Association,C. Francis Stradford and Aida Arabella Stradford,Jewel earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Oberlin College in 1943.While at Oberlin College,she was captain of the volleyball team and a member of the Musical Union,Cosmopolitan Club,and many other activities.She began law school in 1943 and was the only African American in her class.In 1946,she was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School.In 1947,Jewel was admitted to the Illinois State Bar.That same year,she became a trial lawyer for the Legal Aid Bureau of Chicago.She formed a law firm in Chicago in 1949 with her first husband,John W. Rogers Sr.In 1955,President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Jewel as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.Jewel served in that roll until 1958.In July 1960,she was a delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention.Jewel gave the seconding speech for President Nixon nomination to be the Republican candidate for President during the 1960 Presidential election.In 1961,she started a new law firm in Chicago with her second husband called Stradford,Lafontant and Lafontant.In 1963,she became the first black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court of the United States.Her case,Beatrice Lynum v.The State of Illinois set the precedent for the landmark Miranda v.The State of Arizona case in 1966.She ran unsuccessful for Illinois judicial elections in 1962 and 1970.She sat on many corporate and non-profits boards,including the boards of Jewel Companies,Trans World Airlines Mobil Corporation,Revlon,the Illinois Humane,Society,Howard University,and Oberlin College.In 1969, President Nixon,tapped her to served as vice chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs.In 1972,he appointed Jewel to serve as a representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations.In 1973 President Nixon appointed Jewel to be the first- ever female Deputy Solicitor General. She left his administration in 1975 to return to practing law in Chicago,which she continued to do until 1989.Jewel was admitted to the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1985 .From 1989 until 1993,she held the title of Ambassador-at-large and was the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs while in the administration of President George H. Bush.She traveled extensively during this time all over the world.Jewel made a yearly recommendation to President Bush about the number of refugees that should be admitted to the United States.She succeeded Jonathan Moore in this Position.After George lost his reelection campaign,Jewel returned to Chicago to continue practicing law until her death.She married John W. Rogers, Sr.,a former member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War 2,on December 7,1946;the had one child,investment executive John W. Rogers,Jr(born 1958).The couple divorced in 1961.She remarried,to Haitian-American attorney H. Ernest Lafontant in 1961,and remained married until his death in October 1976.Jewel married Naguib Soby Mankarious in 1989 and was married to him until his death in 1997.Jewel died of breast cancer at her home in Chicago.