In 1904, a lawyer named Richard B. Kelly moved his family from Anniston to Birmingham. His daughter, Maud, a recent high school graduate, became his stenographer. Soon, she became fascinated with law and began studying it on her own. Though the idea of a female lawyer was unheard of in the Alabama of that day, Maud McLure Kelly decided that is exactly what she wanted to become.

Maud McLure Kelly  (contributed)

Admission to the University of Alabama School of Law was opened to women in the late 1890s, but when Kelly applied and was accepted in 1907, she was only its second female student. Her immersion in her father’s law books paid off immediately, as she scored so highly on the entrance exam that she was admitted as a senior, obtaining her law degree in one year and graduating with honors.

When Kelly received her law degree in 1908, she encountered an immediate obstacle to her intended career. The Code of Alabama stated that a law school graduate could be admitted to the state bar upon presenting “his” diploma as credential. A friend from law school who was a state legislator sponsored a revision of the statute to read “his or her,” clearing the way for Kelly to become the first woman to practice law in Alabama.

Augusta Dowd (contributed)

“She is a seminal character in the ability of women to move forward and be heard in the legal profession in Alabama,” said Augusta Dowd, vice president and managing lawyer of the Birmingham firm of White Arnold & Dowd. “Even today, the law is a very male-oriented profession, so the example of Maud McLure Kelly continues to help women know that they can set their sights on something and make it happen.”

On opening her practice in Birmingham, Kelly began representing a broad variety of clients in both civil and criminal matters and was known as an advocate for the poor and underserved. By 1914, she was certified to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court – one of the first women in the South to earn that distinction.

Kelly also became a local and statewide leader in the campaign to gain women the right to vote, helping to organize both the Birmingham and Alabama equal suffrage associations. By the time that right was extended with ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1919, Kelly was living in the nation’s capital, working as an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Maud McLure Kelly  (contributed)

Family obligations – her father’s health was declining, and two of her three brothers suffered from wounds they received in World War I – brought Kelly home to Alabama in 1924. Resuming her private practice and the travel it entailed, she began conducting historical research and compiling genealogical and other information from around the state.

Kelly left the legal profession in 1931 – the online Encyclopedia of Alabama notes that she was “able to live off some wise investments” – and spent more than a decade volunteering for civic and charitable causes and continuing to build her personal library of manuscripts, documents and maps. In 1943, she accepted a position with the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), where she would work until her retirement in 1956.

Maud McLure Kelly  (contributed)

As acquisitions agent for ADAH, Kelly was credited with greatly expanding the department’s archival holdings. She also served as editor of the Alabama Historical Quarterly and drafted legislation that gave the ADAH authority over the state’s public records.

Kelly died in 1973, at the age of 85. She donated her extensive personal library to Samford University, where it is part of the university library’s Special Collections department.

In 2002, the Alabama State Bar initiated the Maud McLure Kelly Award, which annually honors “a female attorney who has made a lasting impact on the legal profession and has been a pioneer and leader within the state.” The first award went to Janie Shores, the first woman to serve on the Alabama Supreme Court. The recipient in 2020 was Augusta Dowd, who called the award “the premiere honor that can be given to a female who is a practicing lawyer in Alabama,” and said it is fitting that the award is named for Kelly.

“She was an amazing person,” said Dowd. “I have tremendous respect for Maud McLure Kelly. Her life and career continue to be an inspiration for female lawyers in particular, but also for all women in Alabama.”