Howard University School of Law - Women in The History of Howard Law

Women in The History of Howard Law

Howard Law was the first school in the nation to have a nondiscriminatory admissions policy. The school admitted white male and female students along with black students from its opening. It was a progressive policy at the time to admit women, but despite this, only eight women graduated from Howard Law during the entire first thirty years of its existence. The nation’s first black woman lawyer, Charlotte E. Ray, was a graduate of Howard’s law program. Despite Howard University’s policy of nondiscrimination, it is reported that Charlotte applied to the law program using her initials as a ruse to disguise her gender because she was “ware of the school’s reluctant commitment to the principle of sexual equality.” Ray was admitted in 1869 and graduated in 1872.

Another woman claimed to have been admitted to Howard’s law program prior to Ray. Mary Ann Shadd Carey claimed to have been admitted in 1869, but was barred from graduating on time because of her gender. Carey graduated in 1883, making her the second black woman to do so.

Eliza A. Chambers was an early white female graduate of Howard’s law program. Chambers was admitted in 1885 and successfully completed the three year course of study. However, “the Law School faculty refused to hand in name to the examiners, for admission to practice, omitting her from the list of her male classmates whom they recommended, simply because she was a woman.”