Juanita Kidd Stout has the distinction of being the first African American woman elected judge in the United States and the first African American woman to serve on a state supreme court..
Born on March 7, 1919, in Wewoka, Oklahoma, she was the only child of Henry Maynard and Mary Alice Chandler Kidd. Because her mother was a teacher, Juanita Kidd learned to read and play the piano at a very young age. After graduating from Douglass High School in Wewoka, she moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, in order to attend Lincoln University, an accredited African American college. She attended Lincoln University for two years before transferring to the University of Iowa and earned a bachelor of arts degree in music in 1939. Returning to Oklahoma, she taught music at Seminole and Sand Springs high schools from 1939 to 1942.