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This Day in History Class is a production of I Heart

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Radio.

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Hello and Welcome to This Day

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in History Class, a show that

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discovers something new about history

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every day. I'm Gay

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Bluesier, and in this episode,

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we're examining the brief but historic

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career of Charlotte E. Ray,

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a legal pioneer in a time

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of fierce prejudice.

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The day was February

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eighteen seventy two. Charlotte

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E. Ray became the first black

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woman in the United States to receive

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a law degree. She was

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one of just a few women of any

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race to practice law in the country,

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as women were generally excluded

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from the legal profession during the nineteen

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cent tree. After all, it's

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tough to get a degree when most

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of the colleges with law schools have rules

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against your enrollment, and Charlotte

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Ray, as a woman of color, was

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excluded two times over. She

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was born in New York City on January

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eighteen fifty. Her parents,

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Charlotte Augusta Burrows and Reverend

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Charles Bennett Ray, believed

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strongly in the value of education.

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The Rays had seven children, four

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boys and three girls. Despite

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the obstacles society placed in

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their daughter's path, the Rays

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made sure that all three of them, Charlotte

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and her two sisters, Cordelia

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and Florence, got the same chance

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to attend college as their sons did,

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and so in eighteen sixty five,

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shortly after the end of the Civil War,

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Charlotte began attending the Institution

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for the Education of Colored Youth in

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Washington, d c. At

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the time, it was one of a handful

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of schools that offered a quality education

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to young African American women. Much

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of the program centered on teaching domestic

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skills, but there was also a focus

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on training students to become teachers.

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Charlotte liked the idea, so when

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she graduated from the institution in eighteen

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sixty nine, she took a job at

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Howard University as a teacher

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trainee. The university

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had opened just a few years earlier

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with the mission of educating formerly

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enslaved people and their descendants.

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Charlotte believed in that mission and

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knew that training more Black school teachers

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was a vital way to help achieve it. However,

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she also wanted to continue her own

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education, and in particular, she

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wanted to study law. Howard

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University was reportedly hesitant

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to admit women to its law program,

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possibly because the career opportunities

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for women in that field were quite

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limited, with many states not even

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allowing women to take the bar exam.

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However, the school's official

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policies did not discriminate

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against black men or women, and

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so during her first year of

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teaching, Charlotte Ray was accepted

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into a three year program at

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the Howard University School of Law.

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She specialized in corporate and commercial

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law, and she graduated on February

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seventy two. Some accounts

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have claimed that Charlotte Ray secured

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her admission to the DC Bar Association

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by disguising her gender. She

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allegedly submitted her application

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using just her initials C. E.

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Ray as a way to keep it from

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being instantly rejected. However,

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some historians dispute this detail,

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arguing that the bar in the District of Columbia

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had recently decided to admit women

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at the time of her application. Of

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course, it's possible that Charlotte didn't

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know about that rule change and therefore

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or thought a ruse was necessary,

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But whatever the case, Charlotte E.

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Ray was admitted to the District of Columbia

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Bar on March second, eighteen

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seventy two, and then admitted

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to practice on April twenty three

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of that same year. She

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advertised her independent law practice

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in newspapers published by and for

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African Americans, including New

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National, Era and Citizen, both

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of which were owned by Frederick Douglas. Not

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much is known about the specifics of

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her commercial law practice, but

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we do know about at least one case

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of family law that she handled.

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Her client was Martha Gadley,

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an uneducated black woman who was

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trapped in an abusive marriage and

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wanted out. Gadley had already

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petitioned for divorce in early eighteen

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seventy five, citing numerous

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instances of drunken violence as

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grounds for dissolving the marriage,

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but sadly, the court didn't

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see her cruel treat is anything

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to end a marriage over. Gadley's

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petition was turned down and her

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case was dismissed. However,

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Martha Gadley didn't give up. Instead,

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she made the bold move to take her petition

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to a higher court, the Supreme

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Court of the District of Columbia,

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and this time she wouldn't argue her

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case alone. Instead,

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she got Charlotte Ray to plead

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the case of Gadley versus Gadley

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on June three, eight seventy five.

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Ray was the first woman to practice

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and argue in the District of Columbia

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Supreme Court. Her arguments

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vividly described the violence of

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the marriage, including one incident

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in which Martha's husband used an axe

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to chop a hole in their bedroom floor

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and then threatened to push her into the room

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below and break her neck. Ray

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argued that maintaining a marriage like

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that would endanger Martha's life,

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and that she was therefore entitled to a divorce.

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This time, the court agreed

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and delivered a rare ruling in favor

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of a survivor of domestic violence.

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Charlotte Ray's victory on Martha's

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behalf was a high point in

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what turned out to be an all too brief

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career in law. Despite

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her talents, credentials, and expertise,

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Ray was unable to find enough clients

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to keep her practice afloat. In

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the end, too few people were

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willing to trust legal matters to a black

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woman attorney. As a result,

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Ray closed her practice soon after

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the Gadly decision and later returned

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to New York City, where she worked as a public

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school teacher In Brooklyn. She

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also remained active in social movements,

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including women's suffrage and equality

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for black women. In eighteen ninety

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seven, she moved to the suburbs of Woodside

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on Long Island. Fourteen years

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later, she passed away there after

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succumbing to a case of acute bronchitis.

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She was sixty years old. The

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sad reality is that many people

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who break the glass ceilings of societal

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prejudice often don't get to

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go very far beyond the barriers

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they've broken. The silver lining

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is that the people behind them generally have

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a better chance of moving forward even

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further. And that's the way it went with

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Charlotte Ray. Although she only

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practiced law for roughly three years,

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she cleared the path for other African American

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women in the field of law. For

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example, Ray's admission to the bar

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in d c was used by black women

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in other states to establish precedent

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for their own admission to their bars. That

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said, the legal profession remains

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largely on inviting to women, and especially

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to African Americans even today.

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According to the American Bar Association,

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as of twenty twenty one, just over

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a third of the practicing lawyers in the

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United States are female. Even

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more incriminating is the fact that just

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five percent of all you US lawyers

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are black, the exact same percentage

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as ten years ago. The

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story of Charlotte E. Ray

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reminds us that the fight against intersectional

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discrimination has been going on for

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a very long time, and the state

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of legal representation today shows

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that that fight is still far from

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over. I'm

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Gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you

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now know a little more about history

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today than you did yesterday.

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You can learn even more about history by

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following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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and Instagram at t d I HC

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Show, and if you have any comments

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or suggestions, you can always send them

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my way at this Day at

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i heart media dot com.

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Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the

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show, and thank you for listening. I'll

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see you back here again tomorrow for another

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day in History class MMM.

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