Ray, Charlotte E. (1850–1911)

First African-American woman lawyer in the United States who was also the first woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and the third woman in the country admitted to the practice of law. Born in New York City on January 13, 1850; died in Long Island, New York, on January 4, 1911; daughter of Charles Bennett Ray (a Congregational minister and abolitionist) and Charlotte Augusta Burroughs Ray; sister of H. Cordelia Ray (c. 1849–1916); attended the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth, Washington, D.C.; graduated from Howard University Law School, 1872; married a man with the surname Fraim after 1886.

Born in New York City on January 13, 1850, Charlotte Ray was one of seven children. Her mother Charlotte Burroughs Ray was originally from Savannah, Georgia, and her father Charles Bennett Ray was a minister and a wellknown abolitionist of African, Indian, and European descent. Charlotte no doubt inherited much of her tenacity and courage from her father, who was not only the editor of the Colored American and a prominent religious leader, but also a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape. He ensured that all his children, including Charlotte and her sister H. Cordelia Ray , were well educated. Charlotte completed her course work at the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth (which had been founded by Myrtilla Miner ) in Washington, D.C., in 1869, and became a teacher in the Normal and Preparatory Department at Howard University.

Ray had ambitions for a law career, but knew it would be difficult to gain entry into Howard's law school because she was a woman. When applying, she submitted her name as C.E. Ray to maneuver past gender prejudice, and was accepted. Her highly successful academic career included induction into Phi Beta Kappa. Mention was made of her in the school's 1870 annual report, as "a colored woman who 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." The astonishment that ensued was also duly noted.

Corporation law interested Ray particularly during her studies, and she was acknowledged to have a profound grasp of its complexities. She graduated from law school in 1872, and on April 23 became both the first African-American woman lawyer in America and the first woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia. When she opened a law office in Washington, she was only the third woman in the country to do so. (The following year, the Illinois Supreme Court would uphold the denial of a law license to Myra Bradwell because of her gender.) Ray had had several black male classmates in law school, and they went on to distinguished careers despite the racial prejudice in the country. Sadly for Ray, who was by all accounts an excellent lawyer, the double whammy of her race and her gender kept potential clients at bay. She was unable to sustain her practice and was forced to close her office.

Ray remained active in the cause to further opportunities for blacks and women. She attended the National Women's Suffrage Association convention in New York in 1876, and in the years after 1895 became an active member of the National Association of Colored Women. She had moved back to New York City by 1879, and, rather than practicing corporation law, she worked as a teacher in the Brooklyn public school system, where her two older sisters were also employed. There is scant information about her later life, although it is known that she was married sometime after 1886 to a man whose last name was Fraim. She died of acute bronchitis in 1911, at the age of 60. The annual award of the Greater Washington Area Chapter (GWAC) of the Women Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association is named the GWAC Charlotte W. Ray Annual Award in her honor.

sources:

Igus, Toyomi, ed. Great Women in the Struggle. Just Us Books, 1991.

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1980.

Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992.

Weatherford, Doris. American Women's History. NY: Prentice Hall, 1994.

Jacqueline Mitchell , freelance writer, Detroit, Michigan