By: Elsie G. Holzwarth
In May 2023, the Chicago City Council approved a landmark designation for the Clark-Netsch House at 1700 N. Hudson Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood. The house was designed by noted architect Walter Netsch, who also designed the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, the Main Library at Northwestern University, and the original plans for the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University’s Lakeside Campus in Evanston.
Walter Netsch was the husband of Dawn Clark Netsch, described by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development in its Landmark Designation Report, as “a trailblazing lawyer and politician.” They lived in the house beginning in 1974 when it was built. After her husband’s death, she continued to live there until her death at age 86 in 2013.
The landmark designation is somewhat unusual in that it covers the interior, as well as the exterior. In the center is a tower-type structure from which living spaces rotate outward. Dawn Clark Netsch once described it to the Chicago Tribune saying, “The house is designed like a corkscrew. Theoretically, you start at the bottom and wind your way up and around from level to level and room to room.”
Dawn Clark Netsch was a good friend of the WBAI. In 1990, when she was an Illinois State Senator, she was one of the featured speakers at our 75th anniversary birthday celebration. Her talk was published in the WBAI newsletter. She covered the fight for women’s rights through three centuries—from Margaret Brent, Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Victoria Woodhull to the rise of women in 20th century politics.
“Do women make a difference? Does anyone care how many of us are in office except those of us running for office? Yes. There is no question about that in my mind, and I have observed this over a very long period of time,” she said. “Women have been taking the lead on issues.” She listed pay equity, revision of criminal sexual assault and rape laws, spousal abuse, child support and childcare, choice and abortion.
In 1999, Netsch gave a length and fascinating videotaped interview to WBAI past president and historian Charlotte Adelman and me. She admitted to once doubting the need for a separate bar association for women but came to realize its importance. “Networking is a critical part of surviving for lawyers,” she said, “and it has always been there for men. The Women’s Bar is a forum for networking.”
Netsch, a Cincinnati native, recalled her desire to go to Harvard Law School. It did not, however, admit women. Instead, she went to Northwestern Law School, graduating in 1952 in the same class as former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. She was the only woman and he was the only Black graduate. He would later remark how the two of them stood out in their graduation class photo. [What she didn’t tell us was that she was first in the class.]
Netsch then became an associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. “The men would go out for lunches at clubs that didn’t allow women. The men made the decisions when I had done the work.” She worked for a senior partner “who at first couldn’t look at me.” Later he approved of her, telling others, “She thinks like a man.” After two years, she returned to Chicago to clerk for Federal District Judge Julius Hoffman who later was known for presiding over the Chicago Seven Conspiracy trial.
Her interest in politics and government then led her to Springfield as assistant to Gov. Otto Kerner. She worked on legislation and legal issues, reviewed parole and pardon matters, and helped in the creation of state boards, like the Board of Education. But politicians in the General Assembly “didn’t want me working the floor. It was a private club. Illinois was far behind in electing women.” In 1965, she returned to Chicago and became the first woman on the faculty of Northwestern Law School.
In a non-partisan election, Netsch won a seat as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention which produced the 1970 Illinois Constitution. Included was a provision that equal protection of the laws shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, but an abortion rights provision was omitted. “It was a contentious issue,” Netsch recalled, and opponents “brought pickled fetuses” to Convention sessions. [This was not uncommon. I remember seeing these jars displayed, including at the DuPage County Fair.]
In 1972, Netsch was elected a state senator from the North Side, a post she held for 18 years. She was an independent Democrat who beat the regular party organization, known as the Machine. Attention began to be paid to women as candidates. According to Netsch, “Smart male politicians understood more women were voting than men.” She noticed that “In the late 1970s, women were voting different from their husbands. Male politicians realized they couldn’t go around insulting women.” Netsch worked for ratification of the ERA and passage of laws relating to mental health, family and medical leave, pension and health benefits, childcare, domestic violence, and funding for HIV/AIDS care.
In 1990, she became the first woman elected to statewide constitutional office in Illinois when she was elected Comptroller. She campaigned for Governor in 1994 but lost and returned to teaching at Northwestern Law School. Netsch was elected to the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. In 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to an ethics reform task force and, in 2013, she was honored by Planned Parenthood on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
At her memorial at Northwestern, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said, “She was always the smartest person in the room. . . and a person of absolute unshakeable integrity.” The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law announced her $5 million bequest to endow the Walter and Dawn Clark Netsch Scholarship Fund “to provide financial aid and loan repayment assistance for law students pursuing careers in public interest law.” She was a trailblazer, indeed.
Elsie G. Holzwarth is a long-time member of the WBAI, now retired from private practice.
This article was originally published in the WBAI 2023-2024 Year in Review Newsletter on page 12.