Murder of a Trailblazer

Murdered attorney, activist, and scholar, 34-year-old Alberta Odell Jones, burned brightly as the nation's first African American woman sports lawyer, negotiating Muhammad Ali's first boxing contract. She later became Louisville-Jefferson County's first female prosecutor and tireless voting rights advocate before her brutal, unsolved murder in 1965. Murdered attorney, activist, and scholar, 34-year-old Alberta Odell Jones, burned brightly as the nation's first African American woman sports lawyer, negotiating Muhammad Ali's first boxing contract. She later became Louisville-Jefferson County's first female prosecutor and tireless voting rights advocate before her brutal, unsolved murder in 1965. Murdered attorney, activist, and scholar, 34-year-old Alberta Odell Jones, burned brightly as the nation's first African American woman sports lawyer, negotiating Muhammad Ali's first boxing contract. She later became Louisville-Jefferson County's first female prosecutor and tireless voting rights advocate before her brutal, unsolved murder in 1965. Murdered attorney, activist, and scholar, 34-year-old Alberta Odell Jones, burned brightly as the nation's first African American woman sports lawyer, negotiating Muhammad Ali's first boxing contract. She later became Louisville-Jefferson County's first female prosecutor and tireless voting rights advocate before her brutal, unsolved murder in 1965.