Montgomery and Tuskegee, Alabama, where she practiced law for the next three years. In 1951, following her marriage to Frank Beckwith, Dickerson moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and became the second black woman to be admitted to the Indiana bar. Dickerson and Beckwith practiced together for a year before she opened her own law office in Indianapolis.She was especially interested labor and civil rights issues. In 1953, for example, Dickerson petitioned the Public Service Commission to request that the commissioners deny approval of a local transportation company's requests for fare increases until the company agreed to discontinue what she argued were its discriminatory practices against bus drivers and trolley operators. In 1958, after working as an attorney in Alabama and Indiana, she took a vacation to Alaska and decided to move there with her sons. Dickerson established a homestead of and became the first African American attorney and one of only a few women practicing law in the state. Dickerson established a law practice an Anchorage in 1959. One of her most notable cases was an equal pay lawsuit filed on behalf of a female professor at the University of Alaska. It was one of the first cases representing women professors at an American university whose salaries were lower than their male counterparts. Dickerson initially lost the case, but the court's decision was reversed on appeal in 1975. Civic and philanthropic activities During her years in Indianapolis she was active in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the National Bar Association, the Lawyers Guild of American, Americans for Democratic Actions, American Society of Friends, the YWCA and NAACP. She also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Marion County [Indiana] Colored Women's Republican Club. Later years Dickerson remained active in her later years. In addition to serving as president of Dickerson and Gibbons, the law firm she established in Alaska, she founded Al-Acres, a charitable non-profit organization. In 1983 she was elected the first black president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. In 1984 the University of Alaska awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The American Bar Association also recognized Dickerson for her civil rights advocacy and legal career by naming her a Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement honoree in 1995. Dickerson published her memoir, Delayed Justice for Sale, in 1998. Throughout her long legal career Dickerson was considered an advocate for the poor and underprivileged.