Trailblazers in Black History: Charlotte E. Ray

Charlotte E. Ray was born in New York City on January 13, 1850. She graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1872 and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar that same year, becoming the first female African-American lawyer in the United States. Active in the suffrage movement, Ray was a member the National Association of Colored Women. She died in New York in 1911.

Born in New York City on January 13, 1850, Charlotte E. Ray is best known as the first female African-American lawyer in the United States. Decades before she would win that distinction, however, Ray grew up in a large family as one of seven children. Her father, Charles, was a minister and an activist in the abolitionist movement. He edited the Colored American, an abolitionist publication, and helped in the underground railroad, which aided escaped slaves in their efforts to find freedom in the North.

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Source: Biography.com