Harriette Bailey Conn: Public Servant and Political Pioneer

Abstract

Harriette Bailey Conn (1922–1981) was a political pioneer and a remarkable community leader as a woman of color in the mid-twentieth century. At a time when few women of color attended college, she not only graduated with a bachelor's degree but later returned to be the first woman of color to graduate from the Indiana University-Indianapolis (now McKinney) School of Law. She completed her law degree the year after giving birth to her seventh child. In her relatively short political career, she served as a deputy prosecuting attorney, state legislator, assistant city attorney, and, ultimately, state public defender. Through her work in less than three decades in government, Conn worked tirelessly to improve the conditions and circumstances within her community. This article examines her life and legacy as a political pioneer within Indianapolis and Indiana.