Good day everyone,

My name is Anjy, and my purpose or reason for standing before you all is to celebrate black history
month, which’s theme this year is Saluting Our Sisters.

Today im here to talk to you all about Stella Thomas.

Stella was a Yoruba-speaking Nigerian with ancestry in Sierra Leone. She was born in Lagos in 1906,
attended Oxford University, and was admitted to the Bar on May 10, 1933 by Middle Temple. In a
printed announcement of her appointment, the West African Students Union in London referred to her
as "..the first lady Barrister in the entire West African region."

Stella Jane Thomas was both a legal "activist" and a woman of great opportunities . She inspires me in
both of those ways because of her narrative. Stella realized that the fact that she had earned her law
degree, was admitted to the bar, and served as a judge meant that she was already a change agent for
the legal community as well as the larger body of law. Her dedication to fairness and justice, like that of
many attorneys before and since, manifested itself not only in her work but also in overt activism. In
order to combat institutional and structural racism, she also applied her knowledge and abilities that
had been polished via her legal education and experience.

For people of color, Great Britain was not a friendly place between the wars. Stella was at the center of
a significant amount of student action that was sparked by the racism that students of color
experienced. She attended the League of Coloured People's inaugural meeting at the Tottenham Court
Road in 1931 as one of its founding members. The LCP was a British civil rights group that served as a
unifying voice for the nation's African, Asian, and Caribbean minorities. The LCP was the first sincere
attempt at a multiracial group in Great Britain and took a Christian liberal stance. Those goals were to:

*Improve relations between the races; promote and safeguard the social, educational, economic, and
political interests of its members; and engage members in the welfare of colored peoples worldwide

 Stella Thomas was the First black African woman called to the Bar of England and Wales
 First female lawyer working in Sierra Leone, Nigeria or anywhere in West Africa and
 First West African female magistrate.

Stella returned to West Africa where she proceeded to pave the way after briefly after her abolition in
the UK. She qualified to practice in Lagos by enrolling in the Sierra Leonean Bar. In Lagos, she founded
her own law firm. She specialized on family conflicts and criminal law. She was appointed a magistrate in
1943. She would serve as a magistrate until her retirement in 1971.

I was inspired to write about Stella Thomas since I find so much motivation in her story . First of all,
Stella has given me confidence that I can achieve anything if I set my mind to it. She has also made me
feel empowered and grateful to be a young black person.