UBA - “By Law and Legacy: Honoring New Jersey’s Black Legal Champions”

Informally started during the 1960s, groups of Black attorneys gathered to work together to project positive image of the African American attorney in the community, as well as expanding and building their practices. Initially named the Barristers and the Concerned Legal Associates, in 1975 the group named itself the Garden State Bar Association to reflect a growing statewide constituency. Also formed in 1975, The Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes the participation of Black women in the field of law. The oldest women's bar association in New Jersey, ABWL-NJ has spent five decades engaged in strategies designed to gain the legal, educational, economic, and social empowerment necessary to enhance the quality of life for Black women, their families and the New Jersey community-at-large.