Black History Month - Trailblazers of Law

In honor of Black History Month, this year, we celebrate the accomplishments and efforts of four trailblazers who paved the way for future Black attorneys and other marginalized groups in the legal profession. They helped shape the future of law, and their work had a meaningful impact on our society at large.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. He moved to Pennsylvania to attend Lincoln University where he graduated with honors. Despite his academic accomplishments, the University of Maryland Law School denied his application to attend their institution because he was Black. He persisted in pursuing his passion for law by attending Howard University where he graduated at the top of his class in 1933.

Following law school, Harvard offered a postgraduate scholarship to Thurgood Marshall to continue his legal studies. However, he returned to his hometown of Baltimore where he started his own law firm. His work focused on civil rights issues on behalf of his community, and through his hard work and growing reputation, he built his client base to include influential clients like corporate entities and other organizations.

In 1934, Thurgood Marshall started working with the NAACP as a volunteer until his tenure as counsel ended in 1961. Most notably, he argued and won the seminal case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) in which the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided the “separate but equal” doctrine (i.e., racial segregation) in schools was unconstitutional. This decision served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall as Solicitor General of the United States Department of Justice, and in 1967, President Johnson appointed him to the SCOTUS. As such, Thurgood Marshall became the first Black judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, first Black Solicitor General of the United States, and the first Black Justice of the SCOTUS.

Justice Marshall retired from the bench in 1991 and died in 1993. Justice Marshall is considered a trailblazer in the legal profession for his unwavering advocacy for civil rights for all and his breakthrough to high-ranking positions despite growing up and living in segregated America.  

Did you know? Both Lincoln University and Howard University are HBCUs (i.e., Historically Black Universities and Colleges). HBCUs are institutions that were established before 1964—the year the Civil Rights Act became law—to provide education to Black students, who were denied access to education at other institutions due to segregation laws, like in the case of Thurgood Marshall attending law school. Despite their historical significance, HBCUs accept students of any race.

Charlotte E. Ray

Charlotte E Ray is known to be the first Black woman lawyer in the United States. Born on January 13, 1850 in New York City, Charlotte E. Ray attended the Myrtilla Miner’s Institution for the Education of Colored Youth located in Washington, D.C. She graduated from there in 1869 before teaching at Howard University, an HBCU or Historically Black College or University, also located in D.C. While teaching, she also studied at Howard School of Law and became the first woman to graduate from the law school in 1872.

That same year, she gained admission to the D.C. bar. It has been said, to earn membership to the bar, she submitted her name as “C.E. Ray” to hide her gender during a time when women were not allowed to practice law. However, others report the bar had just started admitting women. Either way, Charlotte E. Ray was among the first set of women to practice law in the United States. Other than being the first Black woman lawyer in the country, she was also the first woman to be accepted to the D.C. bar.

Upon admission to practice law, she started her own practice. Her most notable case was a victory on appeal to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia after the lower court had denied Martha Gadley a divorce from her abusive husband. This was the first instance of a woman lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Despite her success, due to prejudice against Black people and women, Charlotte E. Ray could not retain enough clients to sustain her practice.

By the 1880s, she moved to New York where she worked as a public school teacher. She also worked as an activist to promote voting rights for women and equal rights for Black women before her death in 1911. Charlotte E. Ray is considered a trailblazer for her accomplishments in the legal profession at a time when women were not members of the bar while also facing racial prejudice and for her activism in support of equal rights and justice for women.

Did you know? The Myrtilla Miner’s Institution for the Education of Colored Youth, where Charlotte E. Ray attended, has evolved into the University of the District of Columbia’s School of Education and Learning Sciences (“SELS”). What started as a teacher’s training school for Black women, eventually became a four-year teachers’ college for Black students. It later merged with its counterpart for white students (Wilson Teachers College) following the decision of Brown v. Board of Education ending segregation in schools to become the District of Columbia Teachers’ College. In 1977, the Teachers’ College merged with two other institutions to become the University of the District of Columbia, and continuing its commitment to education, in 2026, the University launched SELS.

Charles Hamilton Houston

Charles Hamilton Houston was the first general counsel for the NAACP. His commitment to equal rights coupled with his legal acumen earned him the title of “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow” referring to Houston’s work to eliminate racial segregation laws in America.

In 1915, Houston graduated as one of six valedictorians from Amherst College. After teaching for two years at Howard University, Houston served in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant and, later, a Second Lieutenant in World War I. Upon his return, he matriculated at Harvard Law School in 1919. At Harvard, he was the first Black student to be elected to the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review. Also, he was the first Black student to earn a Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Houston studied civil law at the University of Madrid in 1924 before earning admission to the bar of the District of Columbia. He practiced law with his father, and he also served as vice-dean and dean of Howard University Law School where he mentored a generation of Black lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall.

Thereafter, Houston served as the first general counsel for the NAACP for about two decades working on civil rights cases, including Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938), in which Houston argued it was unconstitutional for Missouri to bar Black students from attending the University of Missouri Law School because there was no “separate but equal” facility. The Supreme Court of the United States decided denial of Black students to the state university law school was unconstitutional because there was no law school for Black students to attend in Missouri; and therefore, the state was denying Black students equal access to legal education—a strategy crafted by Houston with a resulting outcome that laid the groundwork for his protégé’s work in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended de jure segregation in education in 1954. Sadly, Houston died in 1950 before seeing the fruits of his labor when Brown was decided in 1954.

Charles Hamilton Houston is a trailblazer for his vast impact on the legal profession through his mentorship of Black lawyers, such as Thurgood Marshall, and his legal work with the NAACP to help create precedence in furtherance of equal rights for all.

Did you know? Charles Hamilton Houston served in the United States Army during World War I in France as part of a segregated unit where he experienced racial discrimination. He was discharged from the Army, returning to the United States in April 1919 before the period known as the Red Summer—a post-war outbreak of racial tensions and violence. These experiences motivated Houston to pursue a legal education to fight for equal rights for all.

Jane Matilda Bolin

Jane Matilda Bolin is the first Black female judge in the United States. She is also the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School.

Bolin was born in 1908 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Although she graduated among the top of her class from Wellesley College in 1928, a guidance counselor discouraged her from pursuing law as a career because of her race and gender.

Regardless, Bolin enrolled in Yale Law School where she was one of three women in her class, and the only Black woman. She experienced discrimination from some of her classmates and professors (e.g., classmates letting doors slam in her face as they entered or exited classrooms or professors refusing to call on her). Unfortunately, Bolin had encountered similar experiences in her childhood and young adult years, like being refused entry to beauty salons or being excluded from college activities. Yet, Bolin persisted despite these challenges and became the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School in 1931.

She worked at her father’s law practice in Poughkeepsie before relocating to New York City with her husband and fellow attorney Ralph Mizelle. Thereafter, Bolin joined the New York City Law Department becoming the first Black woman to join that office.

In 1939, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Bolin as judge to the New York City Domestic Relations Court (Family Court) making her the first Black woman judge in the country. She remained on the bench for almost 40 years before retiring at the mandatory age of 70. Her work and advocacy promoted civil rights and children’s rights. Even after her retirement, she volunteered as a reading instructor for a New York City public school and served on the New York State Board of Regents before her death in 2007.  

Jane Matilda Bolin is a trailblazer for her professional achievements and her dedication to addressing social problems, especially those impacting children and families, such as poverty and racial discrimination.

Did you know? Jane Matilda Bolin was also the first Black woman to join the New York City Bar Association. Similarly, her father, Gaius Bolin, who was also a lawyer, was the first Black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association.