Saturday, February 11, 2012

Female Flatfoots of Old Chicago

Strayer's story reminded me of one of her contemporaries, one of the most fascinating and inspiring figures in early 20th-century Chicago: an early feminist, an outspoken woman who could be as tough with her ex and judges as she was with criminals, and an entertainingly canny self-promoter who was, for a brief period, a public figure of considerable reknown—yet almost completely unsung today.

Like Strayer, Alice Clement was a gumshoe, but Clement spent her life working for the Chicago Police Department as the city's first female detective. And like Strayer, she made headlines; when I came across Clement's name—she doesn't have much of a legacy on the Web—I read through her press clippings, enthralled. And there were many: Clement was a woman of great integrity and intellectual independence, but she had a P.T. Barnum streak in her as well. Which is why I was surprised that very little had been written about her since her death.


2 comments:

TruthToBeSpoken said...

Hello,

I'm writing a Wikipedia article about Alice Clemant, I was wondering under what copyright license this image is published: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1hmlWgsR-A/TzXzFRs5kOI/AAAAAAAAAac/NC2XrL5Fabs/s1600/corastrayer.jpg and if I could use it in the article.

Kind regards,
TruthToBeSpoken

Melisende said...

The article from the image is used is from:
https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/February-2012/Alice-Clement-and-Cora-Strayer-Badass-Female-Flatfoots-of-Old-Chicago/

Melisende