Phyllis Adelle Kravitch L’44
Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch battled prejudice throughout her trailblazing legal career. Judge Kravitch began her career in Georgia in the early 1940s, more than a decade before women were allowed to sit on juries in the state. In 1979, she became the third woman appointed to a United States Court of Appeals, and the first woman judge on the Fifth Circuit (later divided into the Eleventh Circuit) Court of Appeals. As a judge, she would go on to write hundreds of opinions involving the rights of migrant workers, affirmative action, employment discrimination, and the treatment of refugees.
Phyllis Adele Kravitch was born in Savannah, Georgia on August 23, 1920 to Aaron Kravitch and Ella Wiseman. She attended Goucher College in Baltimore and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1941. Despite earning good grades, she struggled to find a law school that would accept her until she applied to University of Pennsylvania, her father’s alma mater. As a student, she served on the board of editors of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and graduated as part of an accelerated program in 1943.
Entering the workforce for Judge Kravitch was not easy in the 1940s, as she often faced gender and religious discrimination. After applying for a clerkship with a justice of the United States Supreme Court, she was told that no woman had ever clerked at the court, and that they did not want to break with precedent. She decided to return to Savannah to practice law with her father.
Judge Kravitch’s career and devotion to a myriad of scholastic, civic, and professional activities eventually earned her the respect and acceptance of her peers in the Georgia legal system. Prior to ascending to the federal bench, she was active in establishing a family shelter for battered women and a rape crisis center in Savannah, and she also assisted the Georgia legislature in revising family, juvenile, and child abuse laws. In 1975, Judge Kravitch became the first female president of the Savannah Bar Association and the following year, she was appointed as a Georgia Superior Court judge.
Judge Kravitch was nominated by Jimmy Carter on January 19, 1979, to a seat vacated by Judge Lewis Render Morgan. She was confirmed by the Senate on March 21, 1979, and received commission on March 23, 1979. Later, her service would be terminated on October 1, 1981, due to reassignment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. This was a new seat authorized by 94 Stat. 1994. She assumed senior status on December 31, 1996 and her service was ultimately terminated on June 15, 2017, due to death.
Biography for Judge Phyllis Adele Kravitch was taken from “Phyllis Kravitch, Judge Who Opened Doors for Herself, Dies at 96,” by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, 2017.
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