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Susie Sharp Papers, 1900-1997

Title: Susie Sharp Papers, 1900-1997

Susie Marshall Sharp (1907-1996) ofReidsville, N.C., attorney and jurist, was elected chief justice of the NorthCarolina Supreme Court in 1974, becoming the first woman elected chief justice of astate supreme court in the United States. A graduate of the North Carolina Collegefor Women and the University of North Carolina School of Law, Sharp began thepractice of law in Reidsville in 1929. She served as Reidsville city attorney,1939-1949; North Carolina superior court judge until 1962; and as North Carolinasupreme court justice, 1962-1979. The collection documents Susie Sharp's professionalcareer and personal life through correspondence, subject files, speeches, and othermaterial, chiefly 1920s-1990s. Subject files contain clippings, memoranda, andcorrespondence about judicial and personal matters. There are also speeches, chieflyon judicial topics, that Sharp delivered beginning in the 1950s; notebooks in whichshe defined legal terms and cited precedents; and memoranda, opinions and othermaterials related to cases she decided. Correspondence, speeches, and othermaterials document Sharp's 1974 campaign as Democratic Party candidate for the chiefjusticeship, and there are related letters from friends and associates after herelection and her selection as one of twelve 1975 magazine Women of the Year. Some of the materials relate to William Haywood Bobbitt,whose retirement as chief justice made way for Sharp's election, and to professors,particularly Albert Coates, and students at the University of North Carolina Schoolof Law and the North Carolina College for Women (now the University of NorthCarolina at Greensboro). Topics include judicial reform and procedures, particularlyrelating to discipline of judges; women in the judiciary; women lawyers; women'srights, including the Equal Rights Amendment; and prisoners' rights. Much of thepersonal correspondence is with Sharp family members and friends. The Additions of2001 and 2005 chiefly contain materials similar to that of the original deposit. TheAdditions of April and August 2008 relate chiefly to family and private life,including correspondence between Susie Sharp and her siblings discussing trials andfamily affairs; postcards from various Sharp family members; a photograph of Sharp'sfather, James Merrit Sharp; scrapbooks compiled by Sharp's mother, Annie BrittBlackwell Sharp; clippings; a music lesson book; and sewing materials. The Additionof March 2009 includes newspaper clippings and scrapbooks that document Sharp'scareer and personal correspondence with family and friends, some of which is inGregg shorthand. There are also family and professional photographs and photographalbums; calendars, diaries, notebooks, and other volumes that record professionaland private affairs; and other materials, such as personal scrapbooks that reflectSharp's interest in various lifestyle topics, clippings relating to theKlenner-Lynch murders, and papers of James Merritt Sharp that concern fundraisingfor the Near East College Association. Time

ArchivalResource: About 19,800 items (79.0 linear feet)

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