Hi! For the second ELM Spotlight we're tackling the world of law. I was initially going to feature a male entrant today (I try to, more or less, trade off between men and women in each category every week) but I saw today's entrant and immediately changed my mind. lol For me personally, law is one of those fields that never fails to make me feel stupid. LOL It's so technical, so exact, and requires the knowledge and memory of so much information that I could never do it. Legal eagles have my eternal respect because of the skill, memory, and accurate information that is required to even build a case, much less argue it, and I could never. Just thinking about getting into arguments or debates on Reddit raises my blood pressure enough. As a result, doing all of that while holding someone's fate in my hands with just my intelligence will forever be out of the realm of my capabilities. And to have to fight my way in, be fought the entire way through just to even SAY I deserve to stand with other people and be allowed the same rights to education that they are, to even START doing everything I just said? Nah, son. That wonderful (depending on your definition of 'wonderful' ofc) segue leads to today's entrant, who did just that. She did it at a time when we hadn't been a free people for very long, when women had no rights, and when someone with the courage to break through both of those ceilings was desperately needed. She opened the door for so many women to practice law across the nation, and she deserves today's Spotlight for that accolade alone, especially for the time period she did it in. Let's get into it!
Name: Charlotte E. Ray, Esq., 1850-1911
Profession: Lawyer, teacher, suffragist
Why is the Spotlight on her today? For breaking through the ceiling, as both an African-American and a woman, and making a career in law which opened doors for other women as a result
Notables:
--Was the first woman, African-American or otherwise, to graduate from Howard University's School of Law
--Was the first female attorney permitted by the District of Columbia to practice law
--Was the first female attorney permitted by the Supreme Court of D. C. to practice law
--Enrolled in school under the alias C. E. Ray, presumably to hide her gender when enrolling in order to be accepted for her grades rather than potentially rejected for being a woman--despite Howard's policy of accepting Blacks and women at that time, this remains a popular theory
--Taught at Howard in the Prep School department while enrolled in the law program
--Focused on corporate law throughout school and impressed one of her instructors, who documented her natural skill with the corporate thesis she'd developed
--Was acknowledged by the Woman's Journal after her appointment to the bar, which earned her a spot as one of the Women of the Century, which seems to have been a "Who's Who" for professional women at the time
--Opened her own law practice, where she notably--and successfully--petitioned the courts for a divorce on behalf of a woman seeking to escape her abusive marriage, which also made news for the time
--Promoted her law practice in Black-owned publications, notably those owned by Frederick Douglass
--Was ultimately forced to stop practicing law due to prejudice against her being both Black and female
--Got her primary education from the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth, which was one of the few places Blacks could attend for quality education
--Became a precedent for other women seeking admission to the bar in other states across the nation
--Was a longtime suffragist for women's rights and those of Black women specifically
--Was a member National Association of Colored Women, which she appeared to become more active in after her law career ended
--Was posthumously honored by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) with an annual award given in her name as a celebration of the achievements of female attorneys
--Was posthumously chosen as the namesake of NUSL Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International's new chapter for her accolade as the first Black female attorney
Further reading and resources:
Quote of the Day:
"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."
-Kate Kane Rossi
Today's organization: Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)
What does this organization provide? Support and empowerment to potential Black social justice advocates and those seeking to change the communities they live in. They train and mentor those interested in becoming community/social organizers or leaders in a number of programs with the overall goal to rebuild the social infrastructure of local Black communities. By empowering and creating better leaders, BOLD wants them to then develop their communities to be able to seek larger successes in terms of laws that affect minorities, and along the way form multiracial alliances that push the betterment of minority communities overall.
See you tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment