People, Locations, Episodes

Edward B. Ceruti, Lawyer, and Activist born

*Edward Ceruti was born on this date in 1875. He was a Black attorney and racial justice activist. Edward Burton Ceruti was born in Nassau, the Bahamas. His parents were Eliza Jane Anderson, a mulatto, and Edward Burton Ceruti, Sr. The family moved to the United States when he was four years old. According to the 1880 census, […]

Lutie Lytle, Lawyer and Teacher born

*Lutie A. Lytle was born on this date in 1875. She was a Black lawyer and teacher. Lutie A. Lytle was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was one of six surviving children of John R. and Mary Ann “Mollie” (Chesebro) Lytle, both formerly enslaved people. In 1882, the Lytle family moved to Topeka, Kansas. Lutie […]

James R. Johnston, Canadian Lawyer born

*James R. Johnston was born on this date in 1876. He was a Black Canadian lawyer and community leader. James Robinson Johnston was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was the eldest of the five sons of William Johnston, a shoemaker, and Elizabeth Ann Thomas. His maternal grandparents were Reverend James Thomas, a white man from Wales who headed […]

The Compromise Of 1877, a story

*The Compromise of 1877 was enacted on this date in 1877. This unwritten arrangement, informally arranged among U.S. Congressmen, settled the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election.   This agreement, less than a week before the Presidential inauguration, resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, ending the Reconstruction […]

Perry W. Howard Jr. Politician, Lawyer born

*Perry W. Howard II was born on this date in 1877. He was a Black attorney and politician. Perry Wilbon Howard II was born in Ebenezer, Mississippi. He was mulatto, the first son of Sallie and Perry Wilbon Howard, who were enslaved. His parents bought their farmland and sent all seven of their sons to college. […]

McCants Stewart, Lawyer born

McCants Stewart was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American lawyer.

Arthur Spingarn, Historian, and Lawyer born

*On this date in 1878 Arthur Spingarn was born. He was an Jewish American historian, lawyer and activist.

From New York City, in 1897 he was the younger brother of Joel Spingarn and received his A.B. degree from Columbia University in New York. In 1899, he received a M.A. from Columbia University, in 1900 his LL.B., from Columbia University and practiced law until the 1960s in New York. From 1917-1919, he was a Captain in the Sanitation Corps, American Expeditionary Force, United States Army. In 1919, he married Marion Meyer.

Clara Washington Bruce, Lawyer born

*Clara Washington Bruce was born on this date in 1879. She was a Black lawyer and administrator. Clara Washington Burrill grew up in a Black middle-class family in Washington, DC. She graduated in 1897 from the city’s M Street High School, a segregated school known for its rigorous curriculum and exceptional faculty. After high school, […]

Bobby Marshall, Minnesota Lawyer, and Athlete born

*Bobby Marshall was born on this date in 1880. He was an African American athlete and lawyer.

Homer Phillips, Lawyer and Public Policy Advocate born

*Homer Phillips was born on this date in 1880. He was a Black lawyer and public policy advocate. Homer Gilliam Phillips was born in Sedalia, Missouri. The son of a Methodist minister, he was orphaned in infancy and raised by an aunt. Phillips’s interest in law led him to Washington, D.C., where he lived with […]

Willis Tyler, Lawyer born

*Willis O. Tyler was born on this date in 1880.  He was a Black lawyer.   From Bloomington, Indiana, he was the son of Isaac and Mary Tyler, members of Monroe County’s Black community.  The family lived on East 10th Street in what was then known as the “Buck Town” neighborhood.  His father died the year after Willis […]

Julius W. Waring, Judge born

*Julius Waring was born on this date in 1880. He was a white-American lawyer and judge who played a crucial role in the early legal battles of the American Civil Rights Movement.    Julius Waties Waring was born to Edward Perry Waring and Anna Thomasine Waties in Charleston, South Carolina. He graduated second in his […]

Gertrude Rush, Iowa Lawyer born

The birth of Gertrude E. Rush, an African American attorney and activist, in 1880 is celebrated on this date.

She was born in Texas, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Her family also lived in Kansas before landing in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Gertrude attended Des Moines University and studied the law under her attorney-husband James B. Rush. She further studied at Drake and LaSalle universities. Rush was admitted to the Iowa Bar in 1918 as the state’s first Black female lawyer.

Violette Neatley Anderson, Lawyer and Judge born

On this date, Violette Anderson was born in 1882. She was an African American attorney and judge/magistrate.

She was born in London, England, the daughter of Richard E. and Marie (Jordi) Neatley. When Anderson was young, the family moved to the United States, where she attended North Division High School in Chicago, graduating in 1899. She then attended Chicago Athenaeum in 1903, and soon after, she married Albert E. Johnson. Anderson was a Republican and an active Episcopalian. She worked as a court reporter from 1905 to 1920, which sparked her interest in law.

Lena O. Smith, Minnesota Lawyer born

*This date marks the birth of Lena O. Smith in 1885. She was an African American attorney and civil rights advocate.