Pamela Price Is Living Herstory

Pamela Price is a graduate of Yale College and UC Berkeley Law School and a survivor of the juvenile justice, the foster care system and domestic violence. Her fighting spirit has trail-blazed justice for everyday people. Pamela has represented countless victims of retaliation, sexual assaults, wrongful termination, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability and race-based discrimination. Her fight to find justice has made repeated history in the last 40 years – check it out.MakingHistory3.jpgIn 1979, while still in law school at UC Berkeley, Pamela co-founded the Bay Area Defense Committee for Battered Women. The Committee’s Advisory Board included prominent feminists such as civil rights icon Angela Davis and LGBTQ+ rights pioneer, Del Martin. They worked together to advocate in the courts for Domestice survivors, particularly those prosecuted in Alameda County.In 1992, as lead counsel for plaintiffs in Patricia H. v. Berkeley Unified School District, et al., Price mounted a second legal challenge in U.S. history, of sexual harassment in education using Title IX. This time as the lead lawyer. On July 21, 1993, in the first decision to squarely address the issue, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Title IX also prohibits a sexually hostile educational environment. In 1999, Price established the Ida B. Wells Holding Company and purchased her own office building in downtown Oakland. Price has since purchased and sold a second office building in the heart of downtown Oakland, one of only a handful of women business owners to reach that milestone.In 2002, Pamela Price became one of only a handful of Black women to ever argue in front of the United States Supreme Court in Morgan v. Amtrak. In that case, she successfully advocated for her client, Abner Morgan, a Black electrician, who had been subjected to constant racial harassment at his place of employment. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Morgan, and after a ten-year battle with his employer, Amtrak, her client finally found justice. The case established the legal precedent for the “continuing violation” doctrine that applies to all discrimination cases brought under federal law in the United States. In 2003, Price won another verdict for sexual harassment on behalf of another female correctional officer, including punitive damages against the Warden and two Associate Wardens of Pelican Bay State Prison in the case of Freitag v. California Department of Corrections (CDC). As a result of the case, CDC implemented a groundbreaking statewide policy to address sexual harassment of female officers by inmates. In 2018, Price entered the race for District Attorney of Alameda County. She was the first African-American woman to run for the position in California history. It was the first time since 1966 that anyone had challenged an incumbent DA for the seat. Price’s campaign drew great attention, and while she didn’t win the position, her platform did push the DA’s office to usher through many of the reforms she ran on.