Women’s History Month: Highlighting Angela Greene

It’s Women’s History Month and in lieu of all the celebration, we want to celebrate WAOK’s very own Angela Greene for her tremendous accomplishments in the legal world and much more.

Producer by day and nature-made lawyer by night, Angela Greene has a long history of legal activism and civil rights. Angela’s media career spans over 30 years at some of Atlanta’s most legendary radio stations. Angela says she loves working in radio, but her true calling is justice.

Angela recalls when she was a child standing up to the bullies and defending the little guys. It wasn’t until the mid 2000s when her curiosity for the law started to flourish. Her desire to learn was put on hold when her twin daughters needed her voice to speak up for them. In 2011 her daughters were wrongfully kicked out of Girl’s Scouts of Atlanta for sharing their family history and the strong ties Angela and her family have to the Civil Rights Movement. Even though this incident diverted her attention from law school, it was the catalyst for her becoming the Self-Made Lawyer and Super Mom.

Angela shares when her daughters were in the 4th grade they were wrongfully kicked out of the Girl Scouts of Atlanta. She says, “They were assigned a Family Heritage project, which was intended to highlight our family history. Our family made significant contributions to civil rights during the 1960s in Greenwood, Mississippi. A few weeks after my daughters presented their project, they were expelled from their Girl Scout troop without just cause via email from their two White troop leaders.”

Angela shares she initially sought out legal help, but was unable to find a lawyer; it was then she took matters into her own hands. That’s when she became a regular resident in the Georgia State University Law Library spending countless hours trying to find justice for her daughters and her family. Following her long and hard battle against the Girl Scouts of Atlanta, Angela says, “I learned in 3 months what some people are doing in 3 years.” Ultimately Lady Justice did not tip her scale Angela’s way, but from this experience, Angela was inspired to write her first book, “Unnecessary Roughness: The Story of a Mother’s Fight for Justice.” You can purchase a copy of Angela's book here.

Unnecessary Roughness: The Story of A Mother's Fight For Justice By Angela Greene Available for Purchase Through Amazon Photo credit Angela Greene

Angela found the justice system knocking at her door in 2018 when again her daughters needed her voice. She shares that she challenged Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), the largest school district in the state of Georgia. Angela says “...after they attempted to retain my daughters for repeatedly failing math, the area of their specific learning disability for which they had an iron-clad Individual Education Plan (IEP). I filed a Due Process hearing request because clearly (GCPS) had clearly violated the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)(2004).” Angela returned to a familiar place to find justice, the Georgia State Law Library, where she again dedicated many hours to prepare for justice. When her day in court arrived the judge and defence were impressed with her preparation. After a long day in court, Angela got her first taste of sweet victory, when her daughters were promoted and graduated on time with a general education diploma.

Proclamation from the City of Altanta

By this point Angela’s friends and family are buzzing about her love of the law and her hard work. She shares, “My third intersection thankfully was not on my own behalf, but on the behalf of a desperate and tearful parent who contacted me over a year ago to ask me if I would write a brief for her to submit to the State of Georgia Board of Education that was due in 10 days! Her son had been expelled from (GCPS) over an off-campus incident. She was referred to me by a mutual friend who is familiar with my legal skills. She could not afford an attorney and was desperate to help her son. I agreed to help her.” Angela again returned to the Georgia State Law Library to write the brief for this case. After turning in the brief for this case the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) took over the case from there. Southern Poverty Law Center recently tweeted about their victory of this exact case - they won on the strength of the original brief that Angela wrote from which they appealed and won.

Listen to the full interview below.

We salute Angela Greene for all of her accomplishments and wish her nothing but continued success as she prepares for the LSATs. Interested in learning more about Angela take a look at her Instagram!

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