Charlotte E. Ray

Black History Month – February 27, 1872

Charlotte E. Ray was the first Black American female lawyer in the United States. Ray graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872. She was also the first female admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, and the first woman admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Charlotte Ray was born in New York City to Charlotte Augusta Burroughs and Reverend Charles Bennett Ray. Reverend Ray was an important figure in the abolitionist movement and edited a paper called The Colored American. Charlotte had six siblings, including two sisters, Henrietta Cordelia and Florence. Henrietta Ray was a noted poet and her poem “Lincoln,”was read at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington D.C in April 1876. Education was important to her father, who made sure each of his girls went to college. Charlotte attended a school called the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1869. It was one of a few places where a black woman could gain proper education. After this Ray became a teacher at Howard University in the Normal and Preparatory Department, which was the University’s Prep School. While teaching at Howard, she registered in the Law Department, as C. E. Ray. Charlotte Ray graduated on February 27, 1872, completing a three-year program, as the first woman to graduate from the Howard University. While in law school she is believed to have specialized in corporate law. She has been identified as the woman referred to by General O. O. Howard, the founder and first president of Howard University, as having “read us a thesis on corporations, not copied from the books but from her brain, a clear incisive analysis of one of the most delicate legal questions. Ray was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar on March 2, 1872, and admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on April 23, 1872. Her appointment was noted in the Woman’s Journal and gained her inclusion as one of the Women of the Century. Charlotte Ray was said to be eloquent, authoritative, and “one of the best lawyers on corporations in the country.” Yet despite her Howard connections and advertisements, she was unable to maintain a steady client flow, sufficient to support herself. Regardless of her legal knowledge and corporate law expertise, not enough people were willing to trust a black woman with their cases. Wisconsin lawyer Kate Kane Rossi, in 1897, recalled that “Miss Ray … although a lawyer of decided ability, on account of prejudice was not able to obtain sufficient legal business and had to give up … active practice.” Instead she returned to teaching, working in the Brooklyn school system. In 1897 she moved to Woodside, Long Island, where she died of a severe case of bronchitis at age 60 on January 4, 1911. For additional information on this phenomenal African American women, please click here.