In 1958, Mahala Ashley Dickerson visited Alaska on vacation and decided to move there; after claiming 160 acres, she became the territory’s first Black homesteader and months later its first Black lawyer
Dickerson had built a career that included several notable firsts. (Anchorage museum photo) American lawyer and civil rights advocate Mahala Ashley Dickerson’s life took her from Montgomery, Alabama, to Alaska, where she broke barriers in both the legal profession and homesteading. Her journey has been featured by the National Park Service among important figures in…