Black History Month is a time to celebrate the cultural heritage and achievements that African Americans have made that are an indelible part of United States history. In celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting eleven prominent black attorneys who have had a substantial impact on American history. A few of these men and women have made their mark in the courtroom, some moved towards legislatures, and others have had success in both arenas.
African American people have made, and continue to make, changes in the civil rights and legal field. Since our country's founding 246 years ago, African American individuals have experienced, witnessed, and suffered from the systemic racial discrimination that was and is present in aspects of our daily lives. Although one would hope that the legal field, based upon basic ideas of equality and fair treatment, would be unsusceptible to such a tainted reputation, reality has failed to fulfill the rhetorical requirement that the ideals of law have put in place.
Below, you will find eleven African American attorneys who have paved the way for generations of legal intellectuals by challenging a whole country's predetermined prejudice and racism.
(1816-1894)
Dating back to the 1840s, Macon Bolling Allen quit his job as an instructor in Indiana to become an apprentice to General Samuel Fessenden. Fessenden was a renowned attorney and abolitionist in Maine, and with the help of his encouragement, Allen took and passed the Maine Bar examination. In 1844, when African Americans were not even believed to be U.S. citizens, Macon became the first black male with a license to practice law in the United States. At the time, a big portion of the population in Maine was white, making it challenging for Allen to find clients. Due to this, Allen moved to Boston, MA, where he continued to come across racist attitudes; nevertheless, he stood firm, passed the examination to become a civil court judge in 1848, and became the first black judge in the country. Throughout his profession, Macon continued to improve the odds of success for black attorneys for the next half-century.
(1823- 1893)
Cary has a story that crosses borders, as she was not only a legal representative but also a journalist and teacher who dedicated her life to civil rights. Born in 1823, she was raised by an activist family, with her parents assisting escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad. After attending a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, Mary Ann taught in schools for African American students for 12 years. Later, in 1850, she moved with her family to Canada after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. As soon as she was out of the United States, her life course turned from teaching to journalism. She founded the first Canadian antislavery newspaper and became the first African American female editor and publisher in North America. Shortly after the Civil War, Cary returned to the United States, specifically Washington, D.C., where she earned her law degree from Howard University. Although there are very few details on her legal profession, she is known for her persistent work with the women's suffrage movement and even spoke in front of the House Judiciary Committee in 1874 as part of the fight for the right to vote.
(1850-1911)
During the same time that Allen was paving the wave for black males in the legal field, Charlotte E. Ray began her journey as a young girl in the Biggle Apple. Ray's father, Reverend Charles Bennett Ray, was a prominent abolitionist with a progressive position on educating both of his children. Reverend Ray sent Charlotte to the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth in Washington, D.C. Later she enrolled at Howard University, a traditionally black college in New York, where she studied education. Nevertheless, her true dream was to become a lawyer, so she started studying law. In 1872, she became the first black woman to earn a law degree and establish an independent commercial law practice in the United States. Although she was praised for her rhetoric and thorough legal understanding and admired as "one of the best attorneys on corporations in the nation," she found it tough to keep a steady clientele. Because of this, Charlotte went back to teaching; nevertheless, she remained active in progressing women's suffrage and continued to fight for equal treatment for women of color.
(1858-1936)
Born in 1858 in Nashville, TN, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, and his family left for Canada just before the Civil War. After the Civil War ended, his family returned to the U.S. and settled in Chicago, IL, where he later attended Northwestern Law School. After finishing law school, Barnett went on to be only the third Black lawyer admitted to the Illinois bar. Barnett was also an activist, writer, and editor and is known for being the first editor and founder of Chicago's first Black newspaper, the Chicago Conservator. After some time, he decided to fully devote his career to law and offered the Chicago Conservator to anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells (who he later married). Barnett served as the assistant state's lawyer for 14 years. He likewise was a lawyer for the Wells-Barnett Negro Fellowship League, where on behalf of an African American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder, he fought for and won a case before the Illinois Supreme Court. His combined careers in journalism and law truly exemplified his commitment to justice and racial equality.
(1895-1950)
Referred to as "the man who killed Jim Crow," Charles Houston started his profession as an English teacher. However, due to the outright racism he experienced while serving in the U.S. Infantry throughout World War I, he decided to study law and utilize his time fighting for men who could not fight back. Mr. Houston registered at Harvard Law and, during his time there, became the first black American to be the editor of the Harvard Law Review. In 1923, he received his Juris Doctor degree and joined the Washington D.C. bar in 1924. Later in his law career, he became dean of Howard University School of Law and made that institution the top training center for civil rights activists pursuing law. Throughout this time, he served as the first special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In this role, Houston was associated with nearly every Supreme Court case between 1930 to 1950 that involved civil rights. He also is credited with writing the method that ended segregation in the general public school system by proving integration would be less expensive than creating "different but equal" schools.
(1908-1993)
Born in Baltimore, MD, Marshall was one of Charles Hamilton Houston's leading trainees and protégés. However, Marshall did not initially plan on going to Howard University. He first applied to the University of Maryland Law School in 1930, but they denied him because of his race. After he graduated from Howard and passed the bar, Marshall successfully took legal action against the University of Maryland for other black students, given the very same rejection he was. Throughout Thurgood's legal career, he led the milestone case that banned racial segregation in schools: Brown vs. the Board of Education. After the Brown decision, while serving in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and soon after the U.S. Solicitor General's office, Marshall represented and won more Supreme Court cases than anyone in history. In 1967, he became the first black judge on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served until 1991.
(1908-2007)
Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1908, Bolin's dad was a very successful legal representative. Following Charlotte E. Ray and her father's footsteps, Jane went to Wellesley College, where her advisor tried to persuade her she shouldn’t apply to Yale Law School due to the fact that black females would neither be accepted nor be successful there. Nevertheless, she was determined to prove that narrative wrong, so she applied anyway. Thankfully, Yale accepted her, and she was the only African American in her class. She graduated in 1931, passed the New York City Bar exam, and began practicing law in 1932. Just seven years into her career, Bolin became the first female United States judge when she was appointed to the New York Domestic Relations Court (now known as Family Court). Bolin spent the next four decades there fighting racial discrimination, working relentlessly to end segregation in child placement centers and probation assignments, and promoting children’s rights.
(1936-1996)
Jordan grew up in Houston's Fifth Ward, where she was known for many distinctive qualities– her speaking ability, ambition, charm, and even her size. Following her dream of being a lawyer, Jordan applied to the University of Texas at Austin however was barred because of segregation. Because of this, she went to Texas Southern University, the "separate but equal" law school for black students. Throughout her first year as a student, her debate coach told her she wasn't good enough to complete; however, she defied him by later leading the TSU debate group to a national championship. Jordan finished her undergraduate degree magna cum laude and went on to Boston University School of Law, where she was the only female in her class. In 1959 she graduated, began a personal law practice in Houston, and in 1966 won a Texas state senate seat. After Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jordan honored his legacy with a moving speech at a Houston funeral. Not long after, she became the first woman elected in her own right to represent Texas in Congress and was the first black Congresswoman to represent the Deep South. In 1976, she made history when she was the Democratic National Convention's keynote speaker. During her profession as a Congresswoman, Barbara had her hands in over 300 pieces of legislation, a number of which still stand. After retiring, she chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform after being appointed by former President Clinton.
(1921-2005)
Motley was an unanticipated civil rights hero. Growing up near Yale University, Constance was almost totally uninformed of black history as a young adult and did not personally experience racism until later in high school. Nevertheless, at 15 years old, Motley read James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois, which stimulated her interest in Black History. She then met a minister who taught classes on Black History, and that focused her attention on civil rights and the underrepresentation of black lawyers. These classes inspired her desire to practice law; however, she did not have the means to attend college, so she went to work for the National Youth Administration. She met businessman and philanthropist Clarence W. Blakeslee through this work, who offered to pay for her education after hearing her speak at a New Haven community center. With this financial assistance, Baker Motley was able to attend college, where she got her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1943. Constance then got her Bachelor of Laws at Columbia Law School three years later. During her legal career, Motley was associated with the civil rights movement, once even visiting Martin Luther King, Jr. in jail. In 1950, she composed the original complaint in the Brown v. Board of Education case and became the first African American woman ever to argue a case before the Supreme Court. She later on became the first African American female to be appointed as a federal judge, the first African American female to serve as a member of the New York State Senate, and the first woman to serve as Manhattan district president. Her legal contributions do not go unnoticed, as she was a force to be reckoned with in and out of the courtroom.
(1937-2005)
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, it wasn't until late middle school that Johnnie discovered his passion for debate after recognizing he was more interested in words and language rather than numbers. While his parents had always thought he would be a medical professional or research scientist, young Johnnie always knew he wanted to be an attorney. However, unbeknownst to Johnnie, his father had already worked to help Johnnie accomplish those dreams. Cochran Sr. managed to get Johnnie enrolled at Los Angeles High School, where he had access to a fully equipped library that was not offered at the high school he was supposed to attend. After high school, Johnnie went on to attend UCLA for his bachelor's degree and then received his law degree from Loyola Law School in 1962. Soon after graduating, Cochran Jr. worked briefly as a city attorney in Los Angeles' criminal division before starting his own firm. Once he started his own firm, Cochran Jr.'s first big case was representing a Black widow who took legal action against several policemen who had shot and killed her husband. Throughout his career, Mr. Johnnie Cochran, Jr. protected and fought for many Black people from the police brutality and abuse they often dealt with.
(1930-)
Mr. Gray is notoriously known for the essential role he played in the successful desegregation of Montgomery buses, both as legal counsel and as a strategist. After high school, Gray attended Alabama State College for Negroes where he got his bachelor's degree in 1951. Despite his intentions to become a historian and preacher, Mr. Gray moved to Ohio after being encouraged to apply to law school by one of his teachers. After being accepted to Case Western Reserve University School of Law, he got his Juris Doctor degree in 1954. At the time, there were no Alabama universities that would accept African American students. Shortly after graduating from law school, Gray represented both Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks after they were criminally charged for refusing to give up their bus seats to white passengers. He also challenged the constitutionality of Alabama laws that mandated the segregation of buses in Browder v. Gayle, which the United States Supreme Court affirmed in 1956. A few years later, in 1970, Fred Gray acted as an elected representative in the Alabama State Legislature, making him among the first two African Americans public officials to ever serve in the legislature since the Reconstruction period. In 1979, Fred was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama by former President Jimmy Carter; however, he was forced to withdraw his name due to the huge opposition from conservative political opponents. During his career, Gray also worked alongside and defended Martin Luther King Jr. and was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives till 2015.
The fight for social justice that was promoted during the civil rights movement still continues today. While Black Americans have gained certain rights under the law, they are still improperly and disproportionately affected by many laws and suggested biases. Unfortunately, remnants of bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, and unequal treatment, still haunt our world today and can most clearly be seen in our criminal justice system.
Although the law is expected to provide equality, the American legal system needs to be scrutinized for the various incidents in which it has failed to follow through on its promises to its Black citizens. For over 200 years, African Americans have comprised the mainstay of a country that was founded on principles of freedom from which they were explicitly excluded for too long. This Black History Month, we acknowledge only a fraction of the contributions African American attorneys have made to form the American legal system, tailoring it towards connecting the gap between inequitable promises of freedom and their actual application to all Americans, no matter the color of their skin. In their commitment to upholding the law, these males and females have challenged predispositions, discrimination, and disparity of opportunity to secure the American promises of freedom and justice for all.
