Attorney Mahala Ashley Dickerson

Attorney Mahala Ashley Dickerson, N.D. Anchorage Museum, Fran Durner Collection, B2016.4.1021 

Mahala Ashley (M. Ashley) Dickerson was born in Montgomery County, Alabama, in 1912 and moved to Alaska in 1958. She was the first Black homesteader in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Within the year, Dickerson became the first Black woman to practice law in Alaska. 

She was dedicated to human rights causes and as a lawyer often took on cases involving the rights of women and people of color as well as issues affecting the workplace. She found time to mentor young minority lawyers throughout her long career. Dickerson recognized the inequities in her community and worked tirelessly for decades to make Alaska better for everyone. In a 1999 interview for the Matanuska-Susitna Historical Commission, she said that Alaska was “the best place in the world, the best people, the most beautiful place in the world.”