BLACKS IN LAW
The First Black Lawyer
1844 – Macon Bolling Allen completed an apprenticeship with a White lawyer. Thereafter, he was admitted to the bar to practice law in the state of Maine.
The First Black Law School Applicant
1850 – John Mercer Langston was the first Black person known to have applied to an American law school located in Ballston Spa, New York. He was denied admission to the school because he refused to “pass” as a race other than Black and be separated from his White classmates. He was also rejected from another law school that he applied to located in Cincinatti, Ohio. (In 1853, Langston was an apprentice for Philemon Bliss, a White Ohio judge and admitted to the bar the following year.)
The First Black Male Law Student
1868 – George Lewis Ruffin, Harvard University Law School
The First Black Woman Law Student
1869 – Mary Ann Shadd Carey, Howard University Law School
The First Black Law Students and Graduates of White Law Schools
* 1873-1877 – The University of South Carolina Law School (enrolled Black students)
* 1877 – University of Michigan Law School (graduate)
* 1878 – Edwin Archer Randolph, Yale Law School (admit)
* 1879 – Alexander Clark, Jr., University of Iowa Law School (admit)
* 1891 – Rufus Lewis Milford Hope Perry, New York University (one of the first Black graduates)
* 1894 – Ida G. Platt, Chicago Law School (graduate) ?
* 1896 – William W. Ferguson, The Detroit College of Law (one of the first Black admits)
* 1936 – Harold Arnoldus Stevens, Boston College Law School (graduate)
* 1936 – Eugene K. Jones, Cornell University Law School (one of the Black students)
The First Black Woman Law School Graduate
1872 – Charlotte E. Ray, Howard University Law School (Two years after the first White woman recorded to have graduated from law school – Ada H. Kepley, an 1870 graduate of the Union Law College of Chicago, now known as Northwestern University Law School.
The First Black Law Students Elected to the Order of the Coif (the most prestigious academic honor society for graduating law school students)
* 1922 – Jasper Alston Atkins, Yale University Law School
* 1923 – William Edwin Taylor, The University of Iowa Law School
* 1923 – Richard F. Jones, The University of Pittsburgh Law School
* 1927 – Leon Andrew Ransom, Ohio State University Law School
* 1929 – Iven McLeod, The University of Cincinnati Law School
* 1933 – William Robert Ming, Jr., The University of Chicago Law School
The First Black Law Students Elected to Work on Law Review (prestigious scholarly legal journal)
* 1921 – Jasper Alston Atkins, Yale University Law School
* 1921 – Charles Hamilton Houston, Harvard University Law School
* 1921 – William Edwin Taylor, University of Iowa Law School
* 1924 – Clara Burrill Bruce, Boston University School of Law
* 1928 – William Henry Hastie, Harvard University Law School
* 1933 – William Robert Ming, Jr., University of Chicago Law School
* 1935 – Harry E. Bonepart, Ohio State University Law School Between
* 1934-1943 – R. Lawrence Clay, Temple University Law School Between
* 1934-1943 – Hobart Taylor, Jr., The University of Michigan Law School
The First Black Women Law Students on Law Review
* 1924 – Clara Burrill Bruce, Boston University Law School
* 1926 – Sadie T. M. Alexander, University of Pennsylvania Law School
* 1928 – H. Elsie Austin, University of Colorado Law School
* 1948 – Juanita Mitchell, University of Maryland Law School
* 1955 – Harriet W. Batipps, Howard University Law School
* 1959 – Patricia Harris, George Washington Law School
* 1964 – Joyce Anne Hughes, University of Minnesota Law School
The First Black Law Student Selected as Editor-in-Chief of a Law Review
1925 – Clara Burrill Bruce, Boston University Law School
The First Black Law Students in Graduate Law Programs
Master of Laws Program
* 1892 – Mason Nelson, Michigan University Law School
* 1893 – Boston University Law School
* 1901 – New York University Law School
Doctor of Juridical Science (Research Degree)
* 1923 – Charles Hamilton Houston, Harvard University Law School
* 1934 – Joseph R. Houchins, Cornell University Law School
The Black Law Schools Between
1869 to 1939, there were nineteen law schools created specifically to educate Blacks who wanted to pursue a legal education. These black law schools graduated the most Black law graduates in the United States between the years of 1871 and 1944.
* 1869 – Howard University Law School (Washington, D.C.) remains open today
* 1870 – Straight University College of Law (Louisiana) until 1887
* 1870 – Lincoln University School of Law (Oxford, PA and West Chester, PA) until 1873
* 1872 – Wilberforce University – Law Department (near Xenia, Ohio) until 1885
* 1875 – Harper Law School (Louisville, Kentucky) until 1890
* 1878 – Shaw University Law School (now known as Rust University) (Holly Springs, Mississippi) until 1880
* 1879 – Central Tennessee College Law School (Nashville, Tennessee) until 1900, then
* 1900 – Walden University (Nashville, Tennessee), replaced Central Tennessee College Law School until 1921
* 1881 – Allen University – Law Department (Columbia, South Carolina) until 1898
* 1888 – Shaw University – Law Department (Raleigh, North Carolina) until 1916
* 1890 – Simmons University – Law Department (Louisville, Kentucky) until 1910 when renamed Central Law School until 1931
* 1896 – Morris Brown College – Law Department (Atlanta, Georgia) until 1907
* 1900 – Lane College of Law (Jackson, Tennessee) until 1903
* 1915 – John Mercer Langston School of Law (A department of Frelinghuysen University) (Washington, D.C.) until 1927 1922 – Virginia Union University Law School (Richmond, Virginia) until 1931
* 1931 – Robert H. Terrell Law School (Washington, D.C.) until 1945
* 1932 – Kent College of Law (Nashville, Tennessee) until 1941
* 1932 – Keystone College of Technology School of Law (Memphis, Tennessee) until 1933
* 1939 – Lincoln University School of La w (Jefferson City, Missouri) until 1943; reopened in 1944 and stayed open for several more years
* 1939 – North Carolina Central School of Law (Durham, North Carolina) remains open today
The First Black Law Professor at a Black Law School
1875 – John Mercer Langston, Howard University Law School
The First Black Woman Law Professor at a Black Law School
1897 – Lutie A. Lytle, Central Tennessee College Law School
The First Black Woman Law Professor at a White Law School
1968 – Jean Camper Cahn, George Washington Law School
The First Law School With a Nondiscriminatory Policy
1869 – Howard University Law School
The First States to Establish a Black Law School
* 1939 – Missouri, Lincoln University School of Law
* 1939 – North Carolina, North Carolina Central School of Law (Based on U.S. Supreme Court decision Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada)
The First Black Legal Sororities
* 1920s – Epsilon Sigma Iota, Howard University Law School
* 1937 – Gamma Delta Epsilon, Robert H. Terrell Law School
The First Legal Fraternity Controlled by Blacks
1935 – Sigma Delta Tau, Terrell Law School