Edith Sampson, born in 1901 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Peabody High School, and then studied at the New York School of Social Work. She got married to Rufus Sampson and moved to Chicago. She studied law at night, working as a social worker during the day, and graduated from the John Marshall Law School in 1925.
Later, she became the first woman to earn a Master of Laws from Loyola University's Graduate Law School in 1927, and passed the Illinois bar exam. In 1934 was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court.
In 1949, Sampson participated in the Round-The-World Town Meeting, as one of twenty-six prominent Americans traveled to foreign countries, meeting with their leaders. Sampson countered the Soviet Union's propaganda regarding the treatment of black people in the US. She also compared communism to slavery.
President Truman appointed her as an alternate US delegate to the United Nations, making her the first African American to officially represent the US to the UN. She served until 1953. During the Eisenhower Administration, she was a member of the US Commission for UNESCO. In 1961-1962, she became the first black US representative to NATO.
Sampson ran for associate judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago and became the first black woman elected judge in Illinois. She continued as a Circuit Court judge until retirement in 1978.
She passed away in October 1927.
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