Who was the first Black Harvard Law Review?

Asked by: Esther Douglas  |  Last update: November 14, 2025
Score: 4.1/5 (5 votes)

The first black member of the Review was Charles Hamilton Houston, LL. B. cum laude 1922, S.J.D. 1923, who served on Volume 35.

Who was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review?

Houston, the first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review, 20 went on to serve as Dean of the Howard University School of Law.

Who was the first black person to go to Harvard Law School?

The first black degree recipients were: Edwin C. J. Howard (Medicine), George L. Ruffin (Law), Robert T.

Who was the first black graduate of Harvard Law School?

HLS professors Annette Gordon-Reed '84, Kenneth Mack '91 and David Wilkins '80 discuss four trailblazing African Americans who, in the years immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation, became the first black graduates of Harvard Law School: George Lewis Ruffin 1869, Archibald Grimke 1874, Clement Morgan 1893 ...

Who was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review?

In 1990, Obama became the first black leader of the Harvard Law Review, which was founded in 1887 and is based at Gannett House.

Obama's Sugar Daddy

17 related questions found

Did Barack Obama get a degree from Harvard?

Obama graduated from Harvard Law in 1991 with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude. In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.

Who was the first African American president of Harvard?

Harvard's first Black president is stepping down after six months in the job. Claudine Gay resigned in the wake of a congressional appearance with other university presidents that was sharply criticized for the response she gave to questions about antisemitism on campus.

Who was the first Black person to get a PhD from Harvard?

W. E. B. Du Bois, the first Black person to earn a PhD from Harvard, used his talent and intellect to pave a path toward racial uplift.

Who was the first Black person to graduate from Yale Law School?

In 1880, Edwin A. Randolph became the first Black person to graduate from Yale Law School and first Black person to be admitted to the Connecticut bar. Prior to Yale, Randolph was enrolled in seminary school in Washington, D.C.

What percent of Harvard Law is black?

Only 19 Black first-year students enrolled at the law school this fall—accounting for 3.4 percent of the total class, the data from the American Bar Association shows. The law school's first-year class had 43 Black students in 2023 and 50 in 2022.

What famous Black went to Harvard?

W.E.B.

Du Bois was a prominent civil rights activist, historian, and sociologist who was the first Black person to earn a Ph. D. from Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard College in 1890 and went on to earn his Ph.

Who is the first Black lawyer?

Macon Bolling Allen (1816-1894)

Considered to be both the first African American attorney to practice law in the United States and to hold a judicial position, Macon Bolling Allen broke numerous barriers.

Who was the first woman at Harvard Law?

Quick side note - women have been at HLS for less than seventy years, so - more to come. In 1947, Soia Mentschikoff became the first woman to teach at HLS.

Who was the first black person to graduate from Harvard Law?

George Lewis Ruffin (December 16, 1834 – November 19, 1886) was an American barber, attorney, politician, and judge. In 1869, he graduated from Harvard Law School, the first African American to do so. He was also the first African American elected to the Boston City Council.

Did Barack Obama go to law school?

In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to attend Punahou School, from which he graduated in 1979. As a young adult, Obama moved to the contiguous United States, where he was educated at Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School.

Who was the first black dean of Harvard Law School?

Stephen L. Ball has made history as the first Black man to be named dean of students at Harvard Law School, C & G News reported.

Who was the first black Harvard grad?

Harvard University Archives. Richard Theodore Greener (1844-1922), professor, lawyer, and diplomat, was the first Black graduate of Harvard College, receiving his AB from the College in 1870.

Who was the first Black woman to graduate from law school?

Charlotte E. Ray (January 13, 1850 – January 4, 1911) was an American lawyer. She was the first black American female lawyer in the United States. Ray graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872.

Who was the first black person to graduate from an Ivy League school?

1857: Richard Henry Green is the first African American to graduate from Yale College. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed graduates from the Yale School of Medicine. 1862: Mary Jane Patterson, a teacher, graduates with a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College.

Who was denied a PhD from Harvard?

Although she earned her PhD at Harvard under William James, Calkins was refused the degree by the Harvard Corporation (who continues to refuse to grant the degree posthumously) on the grounds that Harvard did not accept women.

Who got a degree from Harvard and started Black History Month?

Woodson was an American historian who first opened the long-neglected field of African and African American History to scholars and popularized the field in schools and colleges across the United States. In 1912, he earned his PhD in history from Harvard University, becoming the second African American to do so.

Who was the first Black student at Yale?

In 1870, Edward Alexander Bouchet became the first black person to enroll in Yale College. Bouchet, also the son of a Yale employee, was the valedictorian of the Hopkins School in New Haven. He was the first African American in the country elected to Phi Beta Kappa and ranked sixth in the Class of 1874.

Who was the first black man to get into Harvard?

Until now, most frequently cited as the first Black students at Harvard are David Laing, Jr., Isaac H. Snowden, and Martin R. Delany, who were admitted to the Harvard Medical School in November 1850.

Who was the first female president of Harvard?

Drew Gilpin Faust is known as a historian, a civil rights activist and the first woman president of Harvard — but she was groomed to become a proper Southern lady. Growing up in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley in the 1950s and '60s, Faust's mother insisted that she wear skirts to dinner.

How many black presidents has Harvard had?

In a historic first, Harvard University in the United States inaugurated new president Claudine Gay on Friday 29 September, the first black person and second woman to lead the university, writes Mitchell McCluskey for CNN. Gay is the 30th president since Harvard University's founding in 1640.